Floral Delights
by Alice The Walker
Summary: If it's not one thing, it's another for poor Shinichi. Will it ever end? An eventual KaiShin fic.
1. Chapter 1

"Are you sure?"

The man who asked this appeared to be in his mid twenties. He was leaning against the wall next to the door of the dark, windowless room. Dressed simply in black slacks, a deep navy turtle neck and a black, pseudo military jacket with a black beanie covering his head the man managed to cut an imposing figure. He radiated an intensity that left most people edging away from him subconsciously as their suppressed survival instincts screamed at them that this man was dangerous.

"Yes. He's after something and they don't want him to find it. Apparently the people actively trying to stop him are the same ones that we're after, though a different branch of the organization. There is no official team after them at the moment though."

The man turned his head towards the blonde woman after she finished speaking. While the man favored dark colors she wore a bright pink, trench coat over a bleach white, fitted t-shirt and snug, light denim, straight leg jeans. She looked him in the eye without flinching, returning his steady gaze with her own.

"So that means they're more likely to be complacent thinking that no one will connect them." A thoughtful expression crossed the man's face before hardening. "Will _he_ be there or are you keeping him out of the loop again?"

The woman looked away at the barb and stared instead at her Reebok sneakers while moving her hands into her pockets. Standing in the middle of the room she made an odd picture. She was in juxtaposition to the dark concrete walls and thick solid wood tables and shelves that housed dozens of ferns that were being misted by the copper piping that went around the edges of the room.

Both remained silent then, barely breathing in the dank, moist air that surrounded them. The tension between the two made the air seem even thicker and cloying until even the sound of the dripping water hitting the floor every few seconds seemed sharp and intrusive.

As the seconds ticked by she finally responded in a defensive manner, never lifting her gaze from the floor. "I did it for his own good. He should have left well enough alone from the start and let this whole mess be dealt with by trained adults."

"And yet we both know he's no normal child. He's smarter than most adults are and no matter the amount of training a person receives his instincts are more than able to make up for that.

Turning his own gaze to the far wall as the woman continued to avoid meeting his gaze he continued. "If anything his lack of training makes him far more valuable than the other agents. His mind isn't cluttered with thoughts of protocol and rules to follow that slow the others reaction time to difficult situations. He has only a single minded determination to catch those who have wronged."

The woman lifted her gaze at that, an incredulous look on her face that her companion was saying such things. Opening her mouth to retort she was cut off as he raised his hand in a motion for silence.

"An enemy who is small but relentless is far more frightening than one with power and no will to use it. That's why they feared me so much, since I had the resources and the will. He's quickly turning into someone with both as well. If you keep underestimating him you're going to get us all killed. We need him whether you like it or not."

"He's still just a child!"

Her words echoed around the room as she aggressively stepped towards the man who simply watched her with his sharp gaze. Taking several more steps toward him she didn't stop until she was standing toe to toe with him.

"If it can at all be avoided I will do everything in my power to give him the chance to have a normal childhood. He sees death enough as it is living with that girl and her father, there's no need to force him to see even more. And what if he gets killed himself?"

By now the lady was panting with the force of her emotions, her hands which had been moving erratically while speaking now clenched and still at her sides. Her face had acquired a flush to it and there was a faint trembling throughout her whole body as she waited for his response.

In contrast to her the man had remained calm throughout the tirade, never flinching or averting his gaze.

"The double trusts him more than us. Several influential police officers look to him and listen to him while we can't reveal ourselves to them even to ask for any possible help. He's the one who acquired this information, realized its importance, found the connection it all had and got the completed report to us without compromising either yourself or himself."

Leaning forward the man used his presence to force the lady to step back, consequently allowing himself to get off the wall and reach to open the door. Pausing with his hand on the doorknob he looked over his shoulder at the woman.

"I'd say he has more right to be present when this all goes down then even you yourself have. I have to get moving now, but think on that. You can't keep me from him forever, Jodie."

Smiling sadly Jodie crossed her arms over her chest, looking on as the man opened the door smoothly and started walking out. Right before the door closed she responded.

"I'll let him know soon enough I suppose. Take care of yourself until then, Akai."

The door shut then with a quiet click, leaving FBI agent Jodie Starling in the room alone with her thoughts.

Pushing the sleeve back on her right hand a silver watch was revealed. As she stood there in the middle of the room Jodie Starling counted the minutes that passed, seeming to be almost lost in thought. Exactly 10 minutes after Akai Shuichi left she walked out the door as well. It opened into another damp cellar room that was lined with shelves filled with bouquets that were left in the cold of the basement to help preserve them until they were ready to be picked up by the owner of the shop.

Walking over to the tiny stairway that seemed like almost an afterthought to the room, she trekked up them to walk through a doorway with a swinging oak door that had a sliver of glass put around head height to prevent accidents from happening when people opened the door. Entering another room of the shop she put a bright smile onto her face to prepare herself and strode through the second back room that was more brightly lit with a large glass cooler housing flower cuttings and tables filled with scraps of ribbon and a whole wall of shelving designed specifically to hold all the variety of vases the shop carried.

The doorway in here was completely open and led into the back of the counter of the flower shop. In here there were large stands with multiple levels filled with potted plants that gave the flower shop an earthy smell while filling it with bright colors and darker plants interspersed throughout. The main room was lit by natural light coming through the windows that made up the majority of the front wall. In the corner there was a smaller glass cooler housing some small bouquets of popular, in season flowers so that someone in a hurry could easily pick something cheap and pretty out.

On the counter lay a book filled with ideas for bouquets and styles that could be made to special order. There was a little girl around five or six sitting on the stool flipping through it, giggling as she looked at the pictures. A woman Jodie took to be the girl's mother was standing by a row to tulips with the owner of the shop Hanako-san and the two women were talking with each other.

"Mama look at this one! It's so pretty!" The little girl cried out in a high pitched voice while wildly pointing at the picture in front of her. The mother glanced over with a wry grin on her face.

"Not right now Yumi. And keep your voice down please, no need to shout."

Turning back to Hanako-san, the woman didn't see the disappointed look that spread across the young girl's face.

"Would you mind showing it to me, Yumi-chan?"

Jodie leaned over the counter edge to be on eye level with the child. The girl was sweet looking, with a tiny heart shaped face and light brown hair cut into a cute bob with bangs just covering dark hazel eyes. Shyly the little girl looked at her, before turning the book around so Jodie could see the picture she'd been looking at.

It was a wedding themed bouquet with white lilies that had been raised so there were green strips in the white petals, artistically arranged in a white magicians hat that had green clovers as the supporting base for the flowers. Admittedly it was quite pretty, but Jodie found the choice odd for a young girl. Weren't most girls drawn to red roses?

"That is very pretty, but why not some roses? It's an unusual arrangement for someone like yourself to pick."

Blushing Yumi-chan looked down at her hands demurely folded in her lap. Mumbling something Jodie couldn't hear she leaned forward, asking her to repeat herself. Looking up Yumi-chan had a determined look on her face as she spoke.

"I wanna marry Kid-san one day. Mama says he a true 'gentleman' unlike Papa, though I'm not sure what a 'gentleman' is it sounds really nice so I'm gonna be his bride."

Jodie couldn't help but smile at the earnest and sincere look on the girls face as she spoke of marrying an internationally wanted thief. It seemed even little girls were starting to look for their Prince Charming in bad boys. She wasn't entirely sure if Phantom Thief Kid really fit under the category of bad boy though. He really was in a whole class of his own.

"Well best of luck to you, Yumi-chan."

Standing back up Jodie edged her away around the cluttered counter and headed towards the final door leading outside. As she walked by the tulips she simply tapped Hanako-san on the shoulder to indicate she was leaving. Smiling serenely, she nodded her head before turning back to the customer to help her sort out what sort of pottery would truly compliment the tulips.

Taking a deep breath of the smog filled air of Tokyo, Jodie started to stroll down the street absentmindedly. Dodging people on reflex she headed towards the train station, ready to head back to her apartment and take a long, soothing bubble bath with candles, music and plenty of beauty products to pamper herself with. The way things were looking right then she probably wasn't going to get another chance to just relax for the next several days and she wasn't about to let the little time she had to herself go to waste.

Though she really needed to think on what Akai had said. Frowning she paused at an intersection with fellow pedestrians as traffic whizzed on by in a rush. Really, why did he believe in him so much. Sure the kid was incredibly bright, but to take him on such a dangerous mission? These were coldblooded murderers they were going to be taking down. The chances of everything going wrong were too high for her to feel justified in bringing him with when he wasn't already involved.

He was involved already in everything though or he always managed to find a way to make himself involved. Sighing, she crossed the street as the walking light lit up signaling for pedestrians to hurry across.

He often did come up with good plans though, he was quick on his feet in dangerous situations and he worked on such an excellent level with Akai. It was like the two of them could read each other's minds. At times it was scary how similarly they thought.

Realizing she had already lost any chance of keeping him out once she'd told Akai where she got her information, Jodie pushed it all to the back of her mind. She needed to clear her head first before trying to figure out how to break the news that Akai was still alive to the boy without getting her logical reasoning for keeping the knowledge from ripped to shreds. Then they needed to plan how they were going to go about everything. And with so many unpredictable factors in play she could almost feel the migraine that would be joining her soon enough.

'There's not enough time, too few people, too many things that could possibly go wrong. And we haven't even come up with a plan of attack yet.'

Rubbing her finger tips into the side of her head she turned the corner and entered the station. Purchasing the ticket that would take her all the way to her own area of Beika she breathed a sigh of relief at the thought of almost being home.

As she stepped onto the train she moved quickly to choose a spot with the doors near her back, an instinct to cover her back she'd developed to protect herself from the Organization just in case Vermouth ever decided to come after her. She had no intention of getting hit from behind unawares.

Slowly she lost herself in her more mundane thoughts though as the train rattled on through Tokyo. The chattering of the people around her was almost a lullaby in the normality it provided to her crazy world. Eventually she reached her station and as the train pulled to a stop and the doors open she allowed herself to be dragged along by the rush of the crowd. Quickly making her way through the gate she emerged into the Beika area. Walking swiftly she arrived in the residential part of the area in a matter of minutes and she made her way up the stairs of her apartment building and into her own set of rooms.

Slipping the shoes off and stepping into her slippers she shuffled into her bedroom where she dropped her purse onto the bed and slowly started to undress in preparation for her bath. Once she was in her terry cloth robe and finally ready to slip into the warm water though her phone went off with a shrill ringing.

Annoyed at the interruption she stomped over to her purse, pulling out the phone. It was cool guy. That tended to be bittersweet as he rarely called for anything not involving the Black Organization. The few times he was calling for something besides the Organization it was for help with a murder.

"Moshi, moshi cool kid."

"Hello Jodie-san. I just got a heist note. It seems we have less time than I originally predicted. The next heist is this Saturday at midnight. He's after The Star of India which will be on loan for only that night from the New York Museum of Natural History. They plan to display it at the Imperial Hotel here in Tokyo in the 5th floor music room on top of the Steinway piano."

The migraine that she had known was waiting in the back of her mind made its debut in full force at the news. Glancing at the calendar on her wall it got even worse. Today was Wednesday which gave them essentially two days to set everything up to take down one of the largest criminal organizations in the world before the weekend hit.

"Jodie-san?" Conan's inquisitive voice came over the speaker.

"Think you can sneak away from Ran-chan tomorrow after she drops you off at school?" was her only reply.

"Of course. Where are we meeting?"

"There's a safe place we can meet. It's a store called 'Floral Delights' situated in Ekoda so we probably won't meet anyone you know there. I'll send you the address in a text tomorrow morning at 6 am for you to memorize. When you arrive just ask for Hanako-san and tell her you're with me."

"All right. I'll speak with you tomorrow then."

A click signaled the end of the conversation. It seemed he would be hearing about Akai a lot sooner than she was expecting. Now she had to try and contact Akai so he would be there as well and she had to start getting some agents gathered fast without alerting the Organization as to what was going on.

Staring at her phone she debated whether she really wanted to start on all that right then. After a heartbeat she tossed the phone onto the bed and pivoted on her heel, fully prepared to ignore everything for an hour or so and take a relaxing bath. Maybe she could lose some of the tension that had settled along her shoulders and deep into her neck while she was at it.

Just as she raised her foot to take a step the phone went off again. Looking over her shoulder at the phone that continued ringing as if demanding she pick it up she read the caller id. It was Akai. With a sigh she reached out to pick up her phone and raised it to her ear while pressing the answer button.

"What do you need, Akai?" she answered in a tone that made her displeasure at the interruption clear.

"I just got word from James. Apparently they're suspecting they have a leak and it's not looking good for our double. We need to move now."

"I've already set up a meeting with cool guy for tomorrow morning. Apparently we now have an opportunity Saturday."

"I'll be there."

Another click signaled to her that she'd been hung up on again. Letting the hand holding the phone drop down to her side she stared at it for a few seconds as if expecting it to start ringing again to deliver more bad news. After a moment of blissful silence she breathed a sigh that was a mix of frustration and relief.

'Well,' she thought as she rubbed at her temple with her free left hand, 'at least there are no dead bodies this time around.'

**So yeah, a new story from me. I'm dedicating this to Teah-chan who encouraged me to write some more, though for a different story actually. I'm praying you'll like this one just as much though. **

**Hopefully this one will turn out better than my last one did. I'm thinking right now it's going to be longer, with some more plotline to it beyond the pairing, and regarding the pairing I want to develop the relationship a lot slower this time around. We'll see how it ultimately turns out though. I'm leaving several things open to some suggestion, so I'd love to hear what any one has to say regarding it. Well, so long as you're not just saying you don't like this tiny part so the whole thing now sucks because that's just pointless drivel in my opinion. If you have an good point about how something isn't good I'm willing to hear it. Can't improve until I know what I'm doing wrong. To anyone worrying about the OC's, don't worry they aren't going to play any major roles. I just needed a shop owner, and I couldn't think of a character to fit the role. ^^ **

**Anyways, here's a disclaimer that stands for the whole story. If it's a character you recognize as belonging to the original, it's not mine. Places, certain objects, etc. are the property of others and I am simply borrowing the name and setting for this story. Essentially I only own a few characters and the plot. Everything else I only wish I owned.**


	2. Chapter 2

At approximately 15 minutes to ten in the evening, a young boy could be seen alone, by anyone who cared to look, on an office building skyscraper. Conan Edogawa sat on the top of the mini building that housed the stairwell and doorway to the roof entrance, swinging his legs over the edge of it, as he watched and waited, with a look of intent and excitement on his face. Three buildings over from his position lay the brightly lit Mandarin Oriental Tokyo, one of several luxury hotels that could be found in the Nihonbashi area.

Tonight the hotel was playing host to a French diplomat, a Mr. Lambert, who had decided that he wanted to throw a party before he left the country to return to France. His wife, of course, had felt the need to advertise that she would be wearing the Sancy diamond, on leave from the Louvre.

Apparently Kaitou Kid had decided at the last minute, really only hours after the revealing of the Sancy diamond had been announced, that he wanted to 'borrow' the diamond from the lady. Mrs. Lambert had unexpectedly been happy at the news that Kaitou Kid would be at the party. The last Conan had seen of her, she'd been giggly with delight at having a chance to meet the thief, bragging about how close she would be to him. Which he found somewhat creepy, seeing as the woman had to be in her fifties and the diamond was set in a pin she had attached to her breast. He felt a large dose of sympathy for Kid, though not enough to let him get away with the theft of the diamond, even if the actual theft might be punishment enough.

Conan had difficulties in being able to understand the fascination people, especially women of all ages, had for the thief. Sure, he understood the delight of the chase and the chance to match wits with someone of such a high intellect. It was like nothing he'd ever experienced before. The chance to stand toe to toe with the thief had become one of his reasons for so desperately wanting his own body back. How much closer would he be able to get to the thief if he was his proper age? It was a question that late at night, when he was drifting in that in between world where dreams and reality mixed, he asked himself.

But the romantic fascination some ladies had for him, like Sonoko did, completely baffled him. Did they not see that the man was still a criminal, beneath the white tux and flirtatious charm?

Regardless, the last minute announcement of Kid's intentions had made the heist this time around incredibly simple to deduce. Too simple in Conan's opinion, though it seemed the police, with all their people and a whole task force dedicated to just this work, had not been able to completely figure it out quite yet. That or they thought they could honestly catch Kid by hanging around the Sancy diamond. They never learned it seemed.

Tilting his head in thought, he looked up towards the sky. He knew by glancing at the watch on his wrist that there was still five minutes before he needed to start seriously watching out for Kid. He'd simply decided to arrive early at the spot he'd pinpointed as being Kid's escape route. There was always the small chance that Kid would be running early and he didn't want to risk missing the thief because he hadn't thought ahead.

After tonight he needed to get back to doing some serious scouting for the Black Organization though. He'd promised himself one night of fun, before he would put his all into finding them. He was especially worried after what Haibara had told him last night. As fast as the frown flitted across his face it disappeared. It was ten now, which meant the hotel would quickly be descending into absolute chaos.

The hotel itself was something that was inconsequential to him though. Narrowing his eyes, he kept them trained carefully on the 35th floor of the building. If he was right then that was where Kid would be making his escape from.

Holding his breath, he activated his glasses so that he could hear what was happening. Smirking with triumph as the sound of Kid announcing his entrance rang through his ears, he gave himself a mental pat on the back for having thought ahead, and planting the bugs throughout the party room. Being a child was useful at times, Conan grudgingly admitted to himself, especially when he needed a handy excuse to explain why he was places he shouldn't be. He'd never admit it out loud though.

With all his senses stretched to the max, prepared for when Kid would make his most likely grand exit and head his way, he easily heard the clunk of boots on steps, even through the doorway and walls of the building.

Confused and wary, Conan took his attention off the hotel windows, which showed nothing as the room had been filled with neon green smoke. As the door handle started to shake as someone tried to open the door, only to find it locked, Conan quickly pulled his feet up and lied on his belly, inching away from the edge and hiding himself in some shadows caused by the ventilation system that was also on the top. Curses started to filter through the doorway as the door refused to give.

Conan started to relax, figuring whoever had been trying to get up here, most likely for a smoke, had given up at the locked door. Feeling grateful he'd thought to lock the door, even if it had mostly been to slow Kid down if he tried to go through there, he froze again as he heard the clinking sounds of someone picking a lock.

Whoever was trying to get through was determined it seemed, and Conan seriously doubted they had come up here just to smoke, as he'd first thought. Holding very still and quieting his breathing, so as to be nearly inaudible, Conan waited as an audible click of a lock opening was heard.

The door opened with only the slightest of creaks, before being quickly shut and relocked. He watched as a black fedora hat came into view, the man striding forward without preamble towards the edge of the roof. In his hand he carried a plain, black leather guitar case.

He felt a trickle of fear slide down his spine at the sight of that case. Why would a supposed musician be carrying pick locks around, and breaking his way rooftops?

Taking in the broad shoulders, dressed in a black tuxedo, and the sheer bulk of the man, Conan felt completely outmatched. Even if he tried the stun watch, would there be enough of the drug to knock this man out?

After an accidental meeting with someone from the Organization, who had been at least somewhat immune to the watch, Conan had been feeling very nervous about using it on strangers. He'd only lucked out that time it failed. It seemed the man had done something to anger the Organization, and the man had been killed later that same night. Conan was still unsure if anyone had realized, he was the one to put the man in a semi-drugged state and that he had helped to ensure the man's death by doing that.

The feelings of guilt and fear were still there, brewing under the surface, waiting to bubble out and consume him. He'd kept them pushed down until now, using the sudden heist as a distraction from the turmoil inside him, but the feelings were starting to surface. This man shouldn't be here, was the message his instincts were screaming at him.

Glancing down he noted, with a clinical mind, that his hands were shaking like leaves caught in a gale. The soft thump and clink of the man setting his case down and flicking the latches open drew his attention back up.

Conan's already pale skin became milk white at what he saw.

Inside the case was not a guitar, something he'd already suspected, but instead was a sniper rifle. The lighting wasn't the best for proper identification, but if he made a guess he'd say it was either an M-16 or something similar.

He jolted slightly, as suddenly chuckles came through clearly on his headset. Conan's eyes darted immediately to the dangerous man who was assembling the rifle. Judging by the lack of response, the man hadn't been alerted to his presence by the light sound of his hand sliding on loose rock.

"Really tantei-kun, if you wanted to listen to me talking, you could have simply shown up." More chuckling followed this comment.

Conan allowed the wave of irritation to wash over him, to help erase the feeling of inadequacy. Here was an opponent he had always been able to do something about. The feeling only lasted until the pieces all fell into place seconds later though. Kid talking to him meant he was exiting now. He would be flying towards him, right in plain sight of the man who by now had fully assembled the rifle and was loading it with the cartridges.

Panic overwhelmed him and he could hear himself start to hyperventilate. Apparently the man had heard as well.

Turning his head sharply, glancing in the corners of the building, the man's sharp eyes made quick movements across the roof. Conan forced himself to hold still, knowing that moving even the slightest would alert the man to where he was. He could only hope that he'd shifted enough into the shadows earlier.

The chuckling in his ear had disappeared, and he felt a vague pang in his chest at the lost. No matter how irritating the thief was, at least it had been a distraction from the fear coursing through his veins right then.

The man set the rifle down carefully, before standing up and reaching into his jacket. When he pulled his hand back out to reveal a pistol, Conan felt the cold logic of his mind slip to the front, pushing all his doubts and fears away for the moment. They'd be back later, he knew that, but he was willing to take momentary clarity and use it to his full advantage.

Steadying his breathing, Conan very carefully maneuvered his right hand forward towards his belt. He'd get only one shot, but that was all he'd need. If the man was disorientated the sleeping drug in his watch dart would be enough to knock him out. At the very least, he'd be slowed down enough that Conan would have a chance to get into a more advantageous position. All he needed was time for Kid to get there.

Much as he didn't wish to rely on a thief, or owe him a debt, he wasn't so prideful he'd risk getting killed. He'd made that mistake once, and now he was in the body of a child. He wasn't going to play with Lady Luck again. Odds were he'd end up dead the next time he did.

The man continued moving, the gun held out in front of him as he started a careful sweep of the rooftop. Conan waited until the moment was right, and as the man started to turn he quickly released the soccer ball while his left hand activated the shoe. The man startled and was in the middle of twisting towards him when Conan slammed the ball with his foot.

The man slipped though, hitting the floor as the soccer ball flew right where his head would have been. Cursing under his breath, Conan ducked behind the ventilation system as the man raised the gun to fire. The shot pinged off the metal as he tried to decide what to do now. If Kid wasn't on his way over with his task force after him, Conan was going to become the victim this time around.

Two more shots were fired, each causing the metal to ring with the force of bullets from such a close range. After the next shot hit, he quickly ran, managing to slide over the opposite edge of the mini roof just as the man fired a few more times in the new direction.

Rolling as he hit the floor to prevent any serious injuries, he still gasped as his ankle gave out on him slightly. Pushing through the pain that was suddenly in his right ankle, he moved towards the side of the building with the crosshairs on his watch up and ready. The man had stopped firing, and he could hear him moving closer. The man wasn't used to stealth at close range it seemed. The weapon choice and style of dress was similar to _theirs_ though. Was this man somehow involved with them, or was he just some random crazy with a vendetta against men in white suits?

"Would you mind putting the gun down Snake? It's just not safe walking around with things like that out."

The smooth voice of Kaitou Kid rang out across the tense rooftop, effectively stopping Conan's heart for a second.

Glancing around the corner he could make out Kid, standing on the railing just above the abandoned gun, acting for all the world like this was an everyday occurrence. Then again, maybe this was somewhat normal for the thief.

"This is the end of you now Kaitou Kid!" screamed the strange, black clad man that he now knew to be called Snake.

Conan felt his heart stop as the man jerked the gun to face Kid, and pulled the trigger.

Click.

All three men, or boy in Conan's case, stared at the gun. Conan in shock, Snake in horror and Kid with amusement.

Lightly stepping off the railing to touch down on the rooftop with all the grace of a cat, Kid snapped his fingers as the rifle was suddenly covered in a haze of pink smoke. As it cleared away, the only thing left was a long stemmed rose.

Smirking at Snake, Kid kept his eyes carefully averted from Conan, drawing all the man's attention to himself. Conan took the hint and raised his arm, aiming the watch at the back of the man's exposed nape. Tuning out their voices, he inched closer to them to get a better shot. Taking a few more steps, he set up the shot and pressed.

The faint sound of the release was quickly drowned out as the man started to stumble, eyes rapidly blinking. Right before he collapsed, a disturbing smile spread across his face. Whispering something that Conan wasn't able to catch, but brought a confused look to Kid's face, the man finally blanked out as he hit the ground with a loud thump.

Shoving his hands into his pockets so as not to alarm Kid too much, he walked past the man's fallen body without a glance. Striding within a few feet of Kid, he stopped and looked up, carefully masking the pain his ankle was bringing him.

Taking a breath to steady his voice, Conan spoke. "Thanks. What did he say before he collapsed though Kid?"

Holding his gaze, Kaitou Kid looked down at the serious young boy before him. Purple eyes, sharp in their intensity, raked down his body. Conan shivered slightly as the action left him feeling vulnerable, like he'd been stripped of everything and left exposed for all of the world to see his secrets.

"Let's take care of that sprain first Tantei-kun." Glancing over at the man lying on the ground he continued, "Well, right after we make sure our dear friend doesn't wake up anytime soon."

Walking past him, Kid knelt next to the man and moved quickly with his cape concealing his actions. Moments later he stood up, revealing Snake tied up in thin chains with his hands cuffed rather uncomfortably behind his back. Over his mouth was a black handkerchief that looked slightly damp when the light hit it. Chloroform was the most likely liquid, but Conan wasn't going to argue against drugging the man.

Focusing on the man that had shot at him and been planning to knock Kid out of the sky, Conan failed to notice Kid striding back towards him with a frown on his face. He was made aware of the thief again when he was lifted into a pair of arms. Instinctively he put his arms around Kid's neck at the sudden change in elevation.

"What are you doing?!"

Walking towards the edge of the roof again Kid ignored his weak struggles. The night was catching up to him, the adrenaline starting to wear off and all his pent up emotions were ready to burst. The struggle to hold it back was leaving him too exhausted to put up more than a cursory effort against being held by the thief.

"Aren't you worried about me seeing your face so close?"

Kaitou Kid laughed at that, the chuckles reverberating in his chest and through Conan. Blushing at that, for he wasn't used to being so close to someone, he looked down at the ground. Kid was watching his face, smirking at his reaction.

"It'd be a bit hard for you to identify me Tantei-kun, considering you've been doing your level best to avoid looking at my face this whole time."

As Conan raised his head up to retort to that, he paled as he felt them both suddenly jump upwards. With dread in his heart he looked back to the ground out of the corner of his eye, and all the color drained out of his face at what he saw. The ground, instead of being a few feet away, was now several hundred meters below as Kid had jumped up onto the railing again.

Ignoring the tightness in his throat and the dryness of his mouth, Conan managed to squeak out, "What do you think you're doing?"

"You're ankle's sprained so I have to carry you myself, unless you want to wreck Tantei-kun." Rearranging Conan in his arms slightly to gain a better grip on the boy he continued. "And we need to talk about tonight it seems. Even for a detective you took Snakes appearance a little too well. Almost like you've seen him before. I'd be delighted to hear why."

Without giving Conan a chance to reply, he leaped.

As the air around them rushed past while they hurtled to the ground, Conan tried to control the urge to lose the contents of his stomach. When the hang glider finally formed and instead of rushing down they were swinging up into the air, Conan gave up his pride and turned his face into the thief's neck. Being at the mercy of someone else while a couple hundred meters above the ground was better than a splash of cold water to the face to get him truly awake.

They glided through the air, past skyscrapers and over the crowded roads. After some time that he hadn't kept track of past, Kid finally landed them on the ground in an empty construction zone. As the glider broke back down into his cape he strode over to a table, clearing some of the tools left laying on it with one hand, before setting Conan down on top of it.

Kid knelt down in the dirt, reaching into one of his many hidden pockets and revealing some basic first aid. He watched as the thief reached out to him, untying his shoe and pulling the sock off, before activating one of the cooling packs. Taking a handkerchief from his sleeve, a green one adorned with white top hats, he used it to secure the cooling pack to his ankle in an effort to reduce the now obvious swelling.

Once he had that set he straightened up, only to set his hands on either side of Conan's hips and lean forward over him.

"Now Tantei-kun, mind explaining?"

"I was up there to catch you. He broke open the door, pulled out the gun. I tried to stop him. You showed up. We both stopped him. You took me away before we could inform the police of his location. Now we're both here. End of story."

"That doesn't explain why you weren't surprised to see him Tantei-kun. And don't worry about apprehending him. I made his location quite clear for anyone caring to look for me."

Feeling a smile try to tug its way onto his face at the thought of what he might have done to grab the police's attention, he deliberately focused on the pain in his ankle to stop the smile.

"Let's just say, I've dealt with people similar to him before. Very similar. Now what did he say before he collapsed, Kid."

The thief straightened up at that, his face odd as if it couldn't decide between exasperation or amusement at him.

"He only said one word. Vermouth."

The thief knelt down again as he spoke, reaching forward to remove the icepack and check on the state of the swelling. Consequently, he missed the flash of fear that appeared on Conan's face and the subsequent look of dread. As Kid busied himself with wrapping his ankle tightly in gauze, Conan was flipping through his memory to collect all the clues, before piecing it all together in his mind.

Kaitou Kid returned what he stole, so he either saw it as a game or he was looking for something specific. Considering that he apparently had snipers after him, and on a regular basis seeing as he knew the snipers codename, that ruled out the game scenario. So Kid was after something and strange people in black didn't want him to find it.

These same strange people worked with Vermouth, who was a member of the Black Organization. The Black Organization was after a way to get immortality. He'd originally thought they were sticking with science, such as the apotoxin, and using crimes to fund the research. But what if they weren't limiting themselves to science? Obviously they weren't completely mentally stable, so what if they thought some gem could get them what they wanted. If Kid were to get it, then it'd most likely be lost to them.

A thought hit him then. The man had said Vermouth's name for a reason. What if she were to going after Kid next? Most likely others would show up as well, since Kid would most likely be blamed for getting one of their operatives caught. Even if they managed to kill the man in jail, they'd be after Kid.

"Do you think you can get someone to come get you?"

Blinking, disorientated at all the thoughts running through his head, Conan looked down at the thief with something of a dumbfounded gaze before nodding his head.

"That's taken care of then. Now try to avoid running into anyone unsavory Tantei-kun. I'd be sad if one of my best critics wasn't showing up anymore."

In a puff of smoke, once again green, the magician disappeared.

Reaching into his pocket and pulling out his cell, Conan placed a call to Agasa asking him to pick him up. Relating the name of the place from a sign placed near the entrance, he hung up right after Agasa said he'd be there in about fifteen minutes. Thumbing through his phone book, he then placed a call to Jodie-sensei.

"Moshi, moshi cool guy. What'd you need this late?" was the answering voice, chipper despite the late hour.

"I've got a lead."

The sweet tone was immediately replaced with a far more serious voice.

"I'm ready."

And Conan related everything that had happened that night, giving his theories as well and the time estimate he thought they had until the next heist. Once he'd finished Jodie said she'd let him know once they were ready to move and they bid each other good night.

Shortly after, Agasa arrived in his little car with a worried look on his face. Waving away inquires about his ankle, he seated himself in the car. Upon arriving at the professor's house, where Ran believed he'd been the whole night, he immediately made his way into one of the guest rooms. Foregoing any of his usual nightly rituals, he undressed before reaching out to pull on his pajamas. It was then he finally noticed what Kid had done. Threaded throughout the gauze wrap was the handkerchief, standing out against the white of his skin and the wrapping.

Deciding he was too tired to remove the thief's handiwork, he resigned himself to sleeping with it on. He could simply get it off in the morning, and no one would be the wiser.

Finally crawling into the bed, he fell asleep almost as soon as his head hit the pillow. He was going to need all the rest he could get with them being so close to the Organization.

_Just a few more days, I just need to hold on for a few more days._

**Well, it's been a bit of a wait for this, but I hope you all like it. For anyone that might be confused, this is sort of a rewind, so we can see where Conan is right now. Thanks to everyone who took the time to review the last chapter. ^^ It really helped me find the will to write this. The first 1,200 words just didn't want to come, so it was a bit touch and go with this. I don't think it came out too badly though.**

**Not to beg or anything, but it is greatly appreciated when people take the time to review. It's nice to hear what people like, dislike or are confused about. So long as it's not spoilers you want, I try to make sure I respond to each review I get and answer any questions I can. But enough about that. ^^ Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed it, and you all have a nice day/night.**


	3. Chapter 3

When Conan woke up the next morning, he immediately wished he hadn't woken up at all. The throbbing in his ankle was especially acute, and the stress from all that had happened the night before had left his head pounding. The rest of his body also ached, his shoulder sore where it had knocked against the wall when he rolled off the roof edge, his knees in pain from absorbing the impact of the fall and his neck was tight from all the pent up stress of the last few months.

Leaping off a skyscraper in the arms of Kaitou Kid had also left him with excess adrenaline, which had taken its toll on him, pushing his body into a state of hyper awareness for too long and now he was feeling it in the deep throb of his muscles.

Rolling over to lie on his stomach, as a shaft of light shined through the slits in the plastic window blinds, he buried his head back into his very warm pillow. Just laying there was soothing and it gave him a chance to relax.

As he focused on his breathing and concentrating on slowly relaxing all the muscles in his body, he failed to hear when the bedroom door was cracked open.

As the breathing exercise started to take effect, he could feel the tension start to slip away from his muscles. It was an indescribable feeling really, the closest he could put it into words was that it was like having a premium brewed coffee. Warm, comfortable and left you feeling like the cat that got the cream dipped canary.

Then reality came crashing back in the form of Haibara Ai.

"I'm out of blood."

With a groan he forced his head up, blearily turning to face the not-child, genius scientist with a wit that was often sharper than any sword. She met his gaze evenly, with no hint of discomfort from holding the gaze. After staring her down failed to work, he gave up and let his head crash back into the pillow. Burrowing under the covers, he opted to ignore her presence for as long as he could. Surely she'd decide just this once to take pity and let him sleep, right?

That idea was proverbially shot to hell, as the next thing he knew there was ice cold water, with small ice chips still floating in the liquid, being trickled down his back.

Shooting up in an attempt to avoid more of the water, the attempt was made null as his head connected with the still near full glass that the little devil had been holding above him. The impact knocked the glass out of her hand, subsequently pouring all of the water onto him in one swoop. The icing on the cake was that now his head felt like it had been split open. Which probably wasn't too far from the truth, considering the glasses Agasa kept were pretty heavy duty.

Keeled over from the sudden sharp pain, hands clutching the back of his head where the glass had struck, he tilted his head to the left to look at Ai.

She stood by the edge of the bed with her hands settled in the pockets of her lab coat, an unconcerned look on her face. Seeing that he was paying proper attention to her now, she repeated her earlier statement.

"I'm out of blood." The look on her face made clear how much this circumstance was irritating her. It didn't make her any less creepy in Conan's mind as she still gave off the aura of being somewhat unfeeling, even when it was obvious she was feeling something as mundane as irritation. Feeling his own irritation at being disturbed, and injured no less, Conan made clear to her how little he cared.

"And this concerns me how?"

Ai glared at him before replying in a chilling voice, "Because it's your blood I'm out of, and I need it to run tests on. Unless, of course, you want to remain in the body of a child?"

The turmoil roiled inside him at that, pressing on his heart at the thought of always being Conan. Of always having to lie and sneak and depend on others to protect those he cared for. Taking a deep breath to push it all back down, _just a few more days, just hang on a little longer_, he sat all the way back up.

Taking a leaf out of a yogi's book, he focused on regulating his breathing to overcome the pain. As he shifted the now damp covers off of himself, Ai reached out and grabbed his arm, effectively stopping him from the shock. Ai rarely initiated physical contact. It was something she avoided as best she could on a regular basis.

The sudden contact was clinical though, something he wasn't able to process until a few moments after she'd already shifted her attention to his ankle. He immediately paled at the verbal lashing he would most likely get for injuring himself. Then he remembered who had bandaged it, and their method of doing so. He felt the blush bloom across his cheeks, red as one of the many roses Kid kept on his person for emergency flirtation, and attempted to tug his ankle away from Ai's slim fingers.

He quickly realized the effort was in vain though. She continued to gently prod at his sprained ankle, gently twisting it to judge the severity of the sprain. After a few minutes of inspection, seemingly satisfied she released his ankle. Tucking it back under the wet covers, Conan steadfastly refused to meet her amused gaze. Instead he chose to observe the white walls. Really, between the decorating sense of Hakase and Haibara, the room appeared to be more of a makeshift hospital room. The walls were an off white, the sheets were white and beyond a small armoire, bookshelf, and the bed he lay on, the room was bare of furniture.

He dragged his gaze back to her after she dragged the covers off him again though.

"I suggest quickly devising a cover story for that ankle. And you might want to remove the very Kaitou Kid-ish handkerchief while you're at it."

Turning on her heel, the child genius walked back towards the door. Pulling it open, she paused just in the doorway. Shifting her head to the side, but not quite looking over her shoulder she continued briefly.

"Meet me in the lab in 10 minutes."

Shutting the door behind her at that, Conan continued to sit in the bed as he listened to her footsteps fade away into the house. He couldn't help but stare at the door with a dumbfounded expression. Had she just tried helping him? With something unrelated to the Black Organization?

Though as he pulled the covers off himself and reached for his ankle, he figured a good portion of her examination had been a cover.

'Probably laughing at this stupid handkerchief, witch.'

Finally managing to pull the piece of cloth loose from the bandaging, he realized he was going to have to rewrap the whole thing. Sighing at that, he deftly untied the bandage and rewrapped it with some skill. Examining his handiwork and deciding it was workable at least, he crawled out of the bed.

As his feet hit the cold floor, he flinched as pain shot up from his ankle. After a few moments of clutching the edge of the bed it started to subside, settling into a steady but bearable throb. Making his way slowly across the room towards the dresser, he pulled out a pair of khaki cargo pants to help hide his slight limp and a baggy white shirt with a burnout of the famous profile of Sherlock Holmes.

Glancing at the clock and seeing he had two minutes to get down all the stairs and into the lab, he absentmindedly shoved the handkerchief he'd been clutching into his pocket. Slowly walking out the doorway, wary of putting too much pressure on his ankle, he made his way down the stairs. Walking into the lab he was met with the sight of Ai hunched over a large pad of paper, filled with chemical equations and half-thoughts.

Sighing at the tired sight she made, he walked over to one of the counters that was somewhat bare. Stepping onto the stool that was always placed by it, he reached into the cupboard above it and pulled out two bare white mugs. Filling them with the smooth black coffee that had been brewing, he sipped one himself as he walked over to Ai. Setting the mug next to her hand and taking the cup of cold coffee that had been there, he walked over to the sink and dumped it out.

After he set the cup down with his own drained mug into the sink to hopefully be washed later, he turned around to see that Haibara had set up the needles to draw small samples of his blood. Grimacing at what he knew was to come he strode over to the chair she had pulled up next to her.

Conan sat down before holding his left arm out, wrist facing up. Haibara took a rubbery band of fabric in her small hands, tying it a little ways above his elbow. He felt his arm start to tingle and go numb as the veins started to appear from the lack of proper circulation. After about 30 seconds had passed, Ai tapped his arm as she tried to decide which vein would be the easiest to tap.

Making a decision Haibara picked up one of three needles sitting on the notepad next to her. Lightly placing the needle tip on his skin above a vein that was located in the crook of his elbow, she quickly pushed it in. He felt the pinch and just managed not to wince at the added pain. He saw enough blood as it was so he avoided looking at the blood that quickly filled the needle. Instead he grabbed the large glass of water Haibara had set up, draining some of it to help steady himself. The sudden drop in blood pressure tended to leave him dizzy and the water seemed to help.

Pulling the needle out, Ai took the vial of blood and brought it over to a tiny fridge set in the far corner of the room. She placed it on the top shelf that was labeled "Normal Blood". Below that shelf were a variety of others marked with different numbers. He tried not to think too heavily on the fact that all the vials in that fridge were filled with his blood.

She came back quickly though, settling herself into the stool and pulling the rubber off his arm. While she never took much at a time, Ai had set a firm rule that they had to wait at least five minutes between each drawing. When Conan had tried to argue, she had told him it was either wait five minutes or risk passing out and worrying Ran. He had grudgingly agreed after that.

As they waited for the time to pass Ai turned back to her notes, continuing to scribble equations out while occasionally muttering under her breath things that didn't make sense in Conan's head. But then the girl rarely made much sense to him. Growing bored of watching her scratch letters and numbers onto the page, Conan took another swig of water before looking down at his watch to see how much time was left before they could continue. They had hit five minutes.

"Time for the next one Haibara."

Dropping the pencil in her hand, she quickly strapped the rubber back onto his arm. Waiting for the veins to once again appear, she quickly selected one this time around, drawing the blood and moving swiftly to deposit it into the fridge with the other. Without once really looking at him she returned to her papers.

Feeling the lightheadedness start to kick in Conan didn't complain. Instead he focused very carefully on taking small sips of water and not puking it all back up. Alternating between sipping water and concentrating on his breathing, the time quickly passed and Ai was the one to remind him of it.

As she set the final vial of blood into the fridge he drained the rest of the water. By the time she came back and had finished disinfecting his arm and bandaging the small pinpoints, he was feeling far more like himself.

Standing up and slowly stretching to make sure he wasn't going to pass out once he started moving, Conan walked out the lab door, knowing better than to interrupt Haibara while she was working. If the amount of blood she was going through was any indication, it seemed she just might be getting closer to the antidote.

A grim smile settled onto his face at the thought. It seemed everything was suddenly coming to a head, leaving him tired from trying to keep up. It would all be worth it though.

'It has to be.'

Exiting the stairwell he walked to the door. He needed fresh air and a chance to relax. School would start up again tomorrow and he needed all his wits about him in order to maintain the façade of being well. Slipping his shoes on at the entrance and grabbing the skateboard as he exited the house, he felt part of himself breathe a sigh of relief as he started moving outside.

The throbbing of his ankle no longer seemed important, the dull ache of all his muscles and the pricks of the needle entering his arm a distant dream. As he moved down the mostly empty streets he let his thoughts drift about. That is, right up until he crashed into someone.

The ground was really hard in the city being composed mainly of concrete and Conan winced as he observed the newest scrape on his person. It seemed that as the bodies stayed away, the injuries started to appear, he observed with a cynical air. Glancing up to see who it was he crashed into, he was met with someone who looked remarkably similar to him. Or at least looked similar to his teenage self.

"Oowww."

The boy was rubbing his butt, which Conan could understand seeing as it would have been what he'd fallen on. He couldn't find it in himself to feel a whole lot of sympathy for the guy though. Conan was smaller, lighter, had already been injured, but he wasn't the one complaining about it.

He asked after the guy anyways, if only for the fact that he was curious about his near doppelganger.

"Are you alright onii-san?"

The boy focused in on him at the question, and Conan was able to quickly pick out several differences between the two. For one, this guy's eyes were closer to violet than blue, and his hair was wilder. His posture was different as well and it was evident to Conan, so used to observing the minute differences in people, that this guy was very flexible. More than Conan ever wanted to be, in either form.

"Well, I'm not sure what's injured more. My backside or my pride. Getting run over by a little kid, my reputation will be in ruins!"

Conan could only stare in response to the melodramatics. Was this guy serious?

"Er, all right then. Have a good day onii-san."

Quickly picking the skateboard up, Conan started to walk past the guy, hoping to get away as fast as he could. He didn't need any more crazies to deal with than he already had.

"Wait, wait, wait." As he spoke little signs started to pop up in clouds of white smoke, blocking Conan's way.

"I'm a little lost at the moment. I was wandering around Ekoda, when suddenly I found myself here. I have a feeling we're not in Ekoda any more."

At the 'we're' part, a few doves flew out of his sleeves and took off into the air. Conan was the one starting to wonder if he was in Tokyo anymore. Things were getting a little too surreal for him, and after last night he wasn't in the mood for dealing with magicians. On top of that his ankle was _still_ acting up, scattering his thoughts to the four winds.

"You're in Beika right now. Head down the street until you hit the next intersection, take a right. Head down to the fourth intersection, take another right and you're at the station."

Sliding around the signs, Conan found himself unable to completely mask the sigh that escaped him as the strange boy grabbed his arm. His scraped arm at that.

"You're bleeding. Here let me take care of it for you in thanks."

The kid kneeled down, getting his blue jeans dirtier in the process. Taking a band-aid from his pocket and a small tube of generic anti-bacterial medicine, he rubbed the dirt off with his thumb before applying the medicine and band-aid. Once done, the kid stuck his hand out.

"Names Kuroba Kaito by the way."

Feeling slightly unsure about the grin on his face, as it tickled Conan's memory of something else, he nevertheless reached his own hand out in return. The faster he got away from this strange kid, the better.

"Edogawa Conan."

"Nice to meet you Conan-kun. Hopefully we'll meet again."

Standing back up to his full height, the boy turned on his heel to walk in the direction Conan had told him to go, whistling a merry tune. Shaking his head at the odd encounter, but not willing to right then try and remember where he'd seen that grin before, Conan got onto the skateboard to head back to Hakase's. He didn't want to think about what would happen if he continued to just run around Beika.

It wasn't until he was back at the Mouri's apartment, changing into his pajama's that he noticed the handkerchief Kid had given him was missing. Realizing it had probably fallen out of his pocket when he'd crashed into Kuroba-san, he rubbed at his temples. The next heist that came around, he couldn't imagine what Kid would do to him for losing it. He was sure the thief would use it as a means to say that he owed him a favor for not returning it.

'Owing Kaitou Kid. Can things get any worse?'

Apparently Conan had forgotten he was pretty much a walking, talking example of Murphy's Law.

**Sorry for the wait! I just didn't really have much will to write *shot* ^^ Hopefully it meets expectations, or even better surpasses them. If I'd put it up sooner, it would have been a lot shorter. I figured people would prefer a longer chapter. Am I wrong? **

**Hmm, I don't think there should be anything I really need to explain. Oh, the whole response to blood being drawn. That was inspired by my own experience with it. Except I actually puked, since I didn't realize that trying to move while I'm even a little dizzy, isn't the brightest thing to do. Conan's lucky though, they actually strapped me to my chair because I was sheet white after they drew the blood. They didn't even take much! **

**But enough of my rambling. Please leave a review filled with opinions, thoughts, comments, questions, ideas, etc. I'd love to hear what everyone is looking forward too the most! Have a good day/night! **


	4. Chapter 4

After two days of trying to keep attention away from his injuries, Conan had finally messed up. Big time.

"What if it had gotten worse! And walking on it without crutches or even a cane, do you know how dangerous that is? You could have done permanent damage to it, and what if there was an accident or if someone tried to kidnap you? You would have been completely at their mercy!"

It had all started when Kogoro had bumped into him when he'd been moving to set his empty cereal bowl in the sink. While he hadn't been hit very hard, in his tiny body it had been enough to set him off balance. He'd been forced to shift all his weight onto his bad right ankle. Unable to hold the whimper of pain completely inside, Ran had heard. And she was furious with him right now.

She'd been reasonable enough in that she hadn't called a doctor. After years of karate and seeing others get hurt, and occasionally hurting herself, she had recognized that the sprain was on its way to healing just fine. Which wasn't to say that she hadn't felt the wrapping job was done well as she had gone and rewrapped it herself, doing a much better job than he himself had admittedly done. The problem was that she had then destroyed what little pride he had left by carrying him to his bed and tucking him in tightly. Imagining what Hattori would say if he saw what was going on, he resolved to keep the sprain a secret. No need to give the Osakan more things to tease him about.

The only real problem was that he was now being forced to stay at the apartment. While going to kiddy school was boring and really a waste of time, so was being stuck in bed because of a sprain. Luckily Ran didn't intend to skip school herself, but with Kogoro in the apartment with him he wouldn't be able to get any actual work done in peace.

His hearing picked up that Ran's voice was getting quieter. Tuning back in he managed to catch the tail end of her rant just in time.

"Now I'll let Dad know that you need to stay in bed so don't even think of trying to walk around. If you need anything he'll fetch it for you."

Conan's eyebrows shot up at that and he could faintly hear Kogoro freaking out in the background. Something about how it wasn't his responsibility to take care of brats when he had work to do or some such. Right then, Ran was of a higher priority to pay attention too.

Besides, when did the man ever work?

"I'll be back around four, be good and if Dad gets a client make sure to stay out of their way. Leave a message on my cell if Dad has to leave somewhere and I'll come home right away okay?"

Only just managing to give her one of his best, innocent child grins, he replied with the wide smile, "Yes, Ran-nee-chan!"

Ran smiled kindly at him at that, the stern look melting away. Standing up Ran carefully smoothed the deep blue comforter, ruffling his hair right before walking into the main living room slash office, shutting the bedroom door behind her. It was thin enough that he was able to catch smatterings of what she said to her father, mostly threats about what would happen if he didn't properly take care of Conan.

When she finally left, Conan knew only by the fact that he could hear the tv being turned on. Okino Yoko's voice drifted into his room despite the shut door and after waiting patiently for several minutes to make sure Kogoro wouldn't have one of his random moments of thoughtfulness, he moved the covers off himself. Stepping gingerly onto the floor he padded silently towards a corner of the room to fetch his file of information on the Black Organization.

After Saturday's heist he had been going through the thick file, filled with old cases and newer ones that he thought could be at all related to the Organization. It was also filled with theories and thoughts he had about them and the file had easily grown to a couple hundred papers. He couldn't go through the file during school or when Ran was around, and because of that he hadn't gotten very far in his search for anything that might possibly be related to Kaitou Kid.

He had managed to contact Jodie though and relay his suspicions to her. There was definitely a connection between the Kid heists and the Black Organization, even if he didn't know what it was quite yet. With Snake's word that Vermouth was involved, they had until the next Kid heist to prepare. They would be able to strike then and if they captured Vermouth it'd be like getting the whole thing. There was no way she'd go alone for someone as infamous for escaping capture as Kaitou Kid.

It was frustrating, but with Kogoro focused enthusiastically, too enthusiastically in Conan's opinion, on the program featuring Okino-san, he would be able to get quite a lot done in the hours until Ran came back. Jodie would simply contact him when she had more information.

Settling himself on top of the covers he immersed himself in the papers, spreading them out around him so that he could easily reach whatever he was looking for. The search through it all became easier as the hours passes, the pile of unsearched papers starting to finally show a dent. He was forcibly dragged out of his focused state of mind by the sudden shouting coming from Kogoro in the other room though.

As footsteps in the direction of his door started up, heavy, slow steps that let him know that it was in fact Kogoro heading his way, he quickly gathered all the papers. Heedless of the fact that they would all be mixed up now, he shoved them under the comforter just as the man let the door slam open with a harsh shove.

Conan looked at the man with the widest eyes he could, trying to appear like any other child that would most likely be frightened by the stupid man. And hoping he didn't look guilty like most children would.

"I've got a case! And no you aren't coming with me, brat!"

The triumphant look on Kogoro's face at the fact that Conan would not be able to come was irritating, but he wasn't about to argue. He had better things to do than lead the idiot around by the hand. Who knows, maybe the man had picked something up by now and would be able to handle the case by himself.

Snorting to himself, disguising it as a sneeze so the gloating fool wouldn't hit him, he nodded his head, hoping Kogoro would take the hint and leave already. Instead the man continued to rant, mostly to himself, about how the great Sleeping Kogoro would solve this new case with ease. Trying to contain the irritation Conan felt bubbling up within him he leaned back so he could see around Kogoro. A customer must have shown up at the agency, seeing as he hadn't heard the phone ring and the look on the unfortunate persons face might be enough to cheer him up a little.

Instead of seeing someone looking nonplussed, he instead saw an old man with a balding spot, mustache and thick, round glasses. The man was sitting down on the couch calmly, looking out the window while ignoring Kogoro's talking. He certainly didn't look like someone who desperately needed a detectives help, the way Kogoro was trying to make it seem. Narrowing his eyes slightly at the man, Conan thought it wouldn't be too far off to say that the man didn't act like he needed help at all.

Generally when people came into Kogoro's office, they all had some sort of nervous tick going. Whether it was tapping their hands against something, furrowing their brows when they normally didn't, walking around the office or talking constantly, there was always something that indicated they actually needed help. It wasn't the cheapest thing to hire a private detective and few people did it on a whim.

Watching the man while he waited for Kogoro to finish his self glorifying speech, he noticed that the man did have something of a habit. It wasn't so much a nervous one though, almost impatient. He kept checking a pocket watch, gold with something etched on the surface. It was too far away for him to clearly see what it was though. If the way he was starting to fidget after each time he looked at the watch though, Conan thought maybe the old man would hurry and get Kogoro out of there.

His prediction came true, as after his seventh time looking at the pocket watch, the man carefully cleared his throat in a manner intended to catch Kogoro's attention.

"Mouri-san, as much as I'm sure you would like to reassure your son," Conan and Kogoro both blanched at this, making frantic motions to assure the man this wasn't the case, as he continued on, " but there is a delicate time frame for this and we really must be going now if we don't want to ruin everything."

Standing up the man slipped the watch back into his pocket and made a grab for a plain, cherry wood cane that had been lying on the couch next to him. Walking with the slightest limp towards the door, he didn't wait to see if Kogoro would follow.

'Not that he needed to worry,' Conan couldn't help but think spitefully.

Kogoro had immediately run back into the main room to grab his own coat and shoes, running then out the door behind the man while shouting more nonsense.

As the door finally slammed shut, Conan let out a sigh. Peace at last. Lifting the covers back off of himself, he stared at the piles of paperwork that had been scattered under them. All his neat piles detailing whether something was of note or not were ruined. Now everything was just a big mess of papers, mixed together and some were crushed from his legs and the covers. Depressed at the thought of going through it all, he decided to take a break.

Just as he made it into the kitchen, the door was once again opened. Leaning backwards to see into the main room, all color left his skin. Ran was back.

"Conan-kun?"

Panicking he shot forward into the kitchen while cursing Kogoro for thinking to call his daughter back home. Of course Kogoro would have a thoughtful moment when it was least convenient for him! Sidling up to the wall edge he carefully put his head out a little bit to see where Ran was. She had taken her shoes off and was walking over to the bedroom, looking slightly worried.

Deciding to take the risk of getting caught he took careful steps in the direction of the bathroom. So long as she didn't turn around or anything he could fib that he'd only left to pee. As she started to turn the knob though he was struck with a thought. He'd left the papers in plain sight!

"Ran-nee-chan! What are you doing home?"

Lady Luck was with him for once as Ran turned around at his words, a worried look on her face. She left the door to walk towards him.

"Conan-kun, what are you doing out of bed? You'll make your ankle worse if you keep walking around on it."

She kneeled down to pick him up, carrying him over towards the bedroom door. Thinking quickly he noticed the clock on the wall reading 12:30.

"Ran-nee-chan I'm hungry. Oyaji didn't make any lunch before he left. Can I have the left over salmon? I'm really hungry now and if I don't eat I won't get better so we can just stay in the kitchen right nee-chan?"

Conan paused as he finally realized that Ran had stopped walking towards the kitchen, having frozen in the doorway.

"Ran-nee-chan?"

Was something wrong? Glancing into the kitchen he didn't see anything out of place. No dead bodies, unusual bloodstains, notes in block letters or even any of Kogoro's finished work.

"Ah, I'm fine Conan-kun. How about some miso soup instead? Let's just have you sit on the couch, it'll take some time and the chairs won't be that comfortable."

Despite saying she was fine, Conan was able to feel the slight shaking of her hands. What was going on? He was torn from his musings as Ran deposited him on the couch before walking back into the kitchen. Sitting there, he wondered if it'd be safe to try and hide the papers. As he heard cupboards being opened and closed and pots clatter as they were set on counters, he decided the risk would be worth it. There was no way he could let Ran have a chance to see all those papers.

Ran started humming to herself after he took a few steps away from the couch. Clutching briefly at his heart from the shock that came from hearing her so suddenly, he moved swiftly across the room. Cracking the bedroom door open just enough to slip his miniature body through he made sure it was left open so he could hear if she called. Gathering the loose papers together haphazardly he stuffed them into the file folder.

Pausing just long enough to make sure Ran was still unaware of his having walked away from the couch, he shoved the file back into the space behind the room's dresser where he had previously hidden it. The space between the back of the dresser and the wall was small enough that Ran and Kogoro couldn't really see, but just wide enough for him to shove the file in with his fingers.

Once done he beat a retreat back onto the couch. Lying down he made a start of sorting through what he could recall off the top of his head about everything he'd managed to learn so far.

'Kid is connected to Snake, who's connected to Vermouth who's really Sharon Vineyard. If you look at it mathematically, that means Kid is somehow connected to Vermouth. But what does a phantom thief who returns most of what he steals, have in common with a killer obsessed with immortality?'

"Conan-kun, the soups ready! Do you want to eat it on the couch or at the table?" came a chipper voice from the kitchen.

Absentmindedly he replied that eating at the table would be fine with him.

'Maybe first I should figure out what it is that Kid wants? He doesn't seem like the type to risk his life just for some cheap thrills. He's done something to make that guy Snake mad. Can't question Snake though, killed by cellmate. At least that's the cover story. So assuming it was the Black Organization that he worked for, a separate branch maybe, that means Kid is somehow in the way of them…..wait, Ran was chipper?'

Looking up at the girl that had just walked into the room to pick him up to carry him to the table, he frowned slightly. Ran was humming and smiling. She'd been really mad this morning though. Unless it was that time of month, she should still be slightly irritated with him.

"Ran-nee-chan?"

He figured asking couldn't hurt. Perhaps he was simply being too paranoid. It wouldn't surprise him, he'd noticed he was starting to act more and more like Ai. Constantly jumpy at the sight of someone wearing black or if he felt someone was watching him at all.

"Yes, Conan-kun?"

There it was again, that unusually chipper voice. Ran tended to speak in a calm, slightly worried manner whenever he wasn't at his absolute best. Even then, he'd never describe her as being overtly chipper. Cheerful, but not quite chipper. That was reserved for Sonoko in his mind.

"Did something really good happen this morning? You're acting like you do whenever Shinichi-nii-san calls." And he knew that he hadn't made any calls to her in his Shinichi voice recently.

"How'd you know Conan-kun? I got a text from Shinichi earlier today, he said he'll be back Saturday though he won't arrive until midnight."

Tensing up uncontrollably and knowing he was failing at hiding the anxiety he felt entirely, he still attempted to act as if that hadn't bothered him. This wasn't Ran. The real Ran wouldn't lie about something like that, ever.

The fake Ran acted oblivious to the sudden tension though, blissfully consuming the soup as if nothing was wrong. Breathing deeply, trying to keep his rational mind in control he followed the imposters lead. After several minutes of silence, punctuated only by the occasional slurp of them eating the soup, the fake Ran spoke.

"It seems India is a very popular place to visit lately. Ad's for it seem to be all over the place don't you think?"

Conan's response was to stare. He couldn't quite believe someone had gone through the effort of impersonating Ran just to talk about advertisements featuring India. Though now that this person mentioned it, hadn't he read something a few days ago about some hotel hosting a star sapphire, with a name relating to India? What did this have to do with…..

"KID?"

Shoving away from the table in shock, Conan fell off of the chair in a heap of little boy. The fake Ran was now grinning a grin he'd recognize anywhere. And all he could do was stare helplessly at the phantom thief that had been haunting his thoughts of late.

"You really must not be doing so well Tantei-kun, if it took you that long to recognize me. You're normally so much faster. Or are you just losing your edge?" was the snarky reply to his outburst.

Kaitou Kid spoke in his normal voice, or what Conan considered his normal voice since it was the one he used at heists. It was creeping him out to hear that tone coming from Ran's body, or what looked like Ran's body at least.

The thief didn't even have the decency to give him a hand up, probably a smart move considering the mood he was in now. He'd been worried about Ran finding out about the Black Organization and then worrying about what an imposter was doing by catching him alone, and all for nothing!

A low growl under his breath went a ways towards expressing his displeasure with the thief.

"Now, now Tantei-kun that's just rude."

The smirk never quite left the thief's face as he stood up and slowly edged around the table to get a better view of Conan who had been in too much shock to straighten himself up right away.

"Don't worry so much though, I simply came to see if my favorite critic would be up for a match soon. And it seems you will be, so do make sure to give my thanks to the lovely Ran-san. Keep off your feet now or the game won't be as fun."

Turning on his heel Kid walked out the door, still dressed as Ran for anyone who might happen to come by. Conan pushed himself off the floor as the door clicked shut. Walking over towards the newspaper spread across Kogoro's desk, he flipped through it until he found the article he was looking for.

The article spoke of the Star of India, a star sapphire that many considered the second largest in the world. It had a rare double star and was on display only that Saturday at the Imperial Hotel in the 5th floor music room, on top of their famous Steinway piano.

The door was once again thrown open and Conan glared at Kogoro who came stomping in. Did the man have to be so loud?

"Stupid waste of time, what did the old man expect me to do, drive all over Tokyo looking for his stupid doves. They can't have been that specially trained if they just fly off on him!"

The man proceeded to grumble under his breath, shedding shoes and jacket while oblivious to the presence of Conan sitting at the desk. Deciding to just ignore the man, Conan took his mutterings as confirmation for one of his thoughts, that the old man had simply been a distraction to get Kogoro out of the house, and walked into the bedroom. Making sure the door was shut properly he picked up his phone and dialed a well memorized number.

As the phone rang he decided that she didn't need to know he'd met personally with Kid. Telling her he got a heist note would be enough. With luck there'd be an official announcement later today to confirm his story.

Finally she picked up her phone.

"Moshi, moshi cool kid."

Clearing his throat he relayed the information he'd gathered from Kid's rambling.

"Hello Jodie-san. I just got a heist note. It seems we have less time than I originally predicted. The next heist is this Saturday at midnight. He's after The Star of India which will be on loan for only that night from the New York Museum of Natural History," glancing down at the article he'd taken with him he continued, "They plan to display it at the Imperial Hotel here in Tokyo in the 5th floor music room on top of the Steinway piano."

Silence followed the information and after waiting a few seconds for a response of some sort he reminded her he was waiting.

"Jodie-san?"

"Think you can sneak away from Ran-chan tomorrow after she drops you off at school?"

Without pausing to think it through he confirmed with, "Of course. Where are we meeting?"

"There's a safe place we can meet. It's a store called 'Floral Delights' situated in Ekoda, so we probably won't meet anyone you know there. I'll send you the address in a text tomorrow morning at 6 am for you to memorize. When you arrive just ask for Hanako-san and tell her you're with me."

"All right. I'll speak with you tomorrow then."

Hanging up, he silently cursed Kid for making him work under even more pressure than before. Then another thought struck him. Assuming Ran even let him out of the apartment, she would escort him to his class most likely. Cursing Kid even more under his breath for getting involved with the Black Organization, however unintentional it probably was, he crawled into the bed. With the way his day had gone so far, he came to the conclusion that he might as well just sleep now. Maybe then things would start to go his way for once.

**First order of business, for those who have forgotten the contents of the first chapter. Conan has told Jodie of his suspicions about the B.O. and Kid earlier this week. The conversation at the end is a replica of his conversation with her at the end of the first chapter, so now an exact date is set. So, it is wednesday (shocker since today is wednesday as well, for me at least) in the story, we have caught up finally with the first chapter. Things should start to move a little faster now. Moving on though...**

**Sorry for the late update, but I wanted to have it betaed by two people, both of whom were busy, to catch all the things I'm sure I missed. So say thanks to my sweet sister and terrific Teah-chan. ^_^ Anyways, hope you all liked it. If you don't mind, please take the time to review and let me know what you: hated, liked, loved, found confusing, complicated or if you just have a comment to make on the story. **

**I'm dedicating tomorrow to writing ch. 5 so that should be a much faster update. Thanks to anyone who's stuck with me so far, hope to see you all again. And before I forget, a shout out to two people.**

**_eyeinthesky_ ~ By now you're probably feeling better, but my well wishes have been with you and continue to be if you're not well yet. Glad you liked the last chapter, and thanks for taking the time to leave a comment, even though you were/are ill.**

**_Alias ~ _You don't have an account, so this is the only place to reply. Sorry I haven't sooner, I'm pathetic and forgetful like that. Thanks for staying with me through all this, I'll try to remember to reply more often. Hope you liked this chapter as well.**


	5. Chapter 5

The text from Jodie arrived promptly at six o'clock in the morning.

Still rubbing the sleep from his eyes, Conan gave his phone a baleful, half hearted glare. As the phone continued to beep in an ever increasing crescendo he gathered the energy to move, hitting one of the buttons on it randomly to shut the ringer off. After the phone was set under the pillow to block out the bright light of the screen he sat up properly.

The pops his back made as he flexed his spine while stretching his arms into the air were satisfying, though now he felt his eyes droop. The sensation of being comfortable and warm under the covers and snuggled into the bed was increased by the vague chill of the morning air and the thought of what he was going to have to do soon.

Knowing that you were going to start your day out by lying to a karate champion was never a great way to wake up.

Conan knew that he had to get moving though if his plans for meeting with Jodie were going to come to fruition though. A snort from Kogoro's bed had him jerking in shock at the sudden noise. Daring to take a glance up at the bed, Conan kept still, waiting to see if the man would demand to know what his phone was doing ringing so early.

Kogoro seemed to be mostly listless though, occasionally shifting himself slightly. Sprawled spread eagle on his stomach, drool forming a small pool on his pillow, Conan found that he couldn't understand what Eri-san had ever seen in him. Once again disregarding the man, he reached under his pillow. Now that he'd been effectively woken up, he looked over the message with squinted eyes, trying to memorize the information quickly just in case Ran came in to wake him up.

Reviewing the information several times to make sure it was imprinted into his long term memory, he was unaware of the slight increase in noise coming from Kogoro's bed. The shuffling increased as he remained unaware in his half awake, half asleep state. Moving mechanically through the room, he began to strip off his pajamas. Once off he made a move to grab his pants, pulling them up his thin legs. As he grabbed the zipper the sounds from Kogoro's bed finally caught his attention.

Horror dawned on his features as what was happening finally registered in his mind. Kogoro was apparently having a very good dream. And not one of the clean variety, with pink elephants and dancing dodo's.

Quickly buttoning his pants he grabbed the red shirt from the floor where it had been laying, and ran out of the room as fast as he could. Just barely managing to not slam the door shut in his hast to get out of the room as fast as humanely possible, Conan pulled his shirt. Trying to ignore his cold feet, as he hadn't had time to grab socks, he padded into the kitchen to pour himself a glass of orange juice.

Sitting at the table he waited for Ran to come out of her room, while contemplating how to best get back at Kogoro for the disturbing spectacle he'd made of himself. A few minutes later she did, fully dressed and rolling her sleeves up as she entered the kitchen. Pausing at the sight of Conan waiting for her at the table, she smiled at him and moved towards the cupboards as she tried to decide what to make.

Seeming to decide on something she strode towards the far end bottom cupboards with purpose, speaking to Conan as she maneuvered her way around.

"How do you want your eggs, Conan-kun?" was the inquiry that rang through the room, accompanied by the sounds of her shuffling pots, pans and skillets around as she looked for the correct one.

Pulling out of his thoughts of revenge momentarily, he gave a quick reply of wanting them medium and a thank you Ran-nee-chan. His thoughts were once again focused back on how to get back at Kogoro. While he knew that he was just trying to fool himself into ignoring the stress that was flitting around the back of his mind, he found it a most welcome distraction.

Listening to Ran hum a song quietly and the passing zooms of cars driving outside the agency on their way to work, he found that he was starting to drift off in his seat. The night hadn't been good to him, and little sounds kept him awake as the worry about what was going to happen overtook his mind. The consequence had been a restless sleep, full of scattered dreams with shining monocles and the crack of guns.

He made to gather plates to set on the table, but Ran pushed his chair back in as soon as she heard the scrape signaling he'd been getting off. Giving him a slightly teasing glare, a silent reproach for trying to move too much with his injured ankle, she gathered the two plates herself. Bustling around the kitchen she filled both their plates with seasoned eggs, wheat toast and crispy bacon.

Sitting together at the table as they were, Conan felt the anxiety of keeping his secrets wash over him. Closing his eyes to concentrate on holding it back, not wanting to lose it all when he was so close to finishing it all, he missed the worried look Ran sent him. She spoke up though.

"Conan-kun? Are you feeling alright? Your ankle didn't get worse last night did it? Here, let me check it for you."

He let his eyes drift open halfway as Ran pulled his chair out somewhat, bending down onto her knees to get a closer look at the bandaging on his ankle. His gaze focused down on her, he felt tired. It was getting harder to keep himself together and not just let her know everything. But he couldn't risk that she would treat him differently. Vermouth would know for sure, and he wasn't willing to place bets on how the woman would react to Ran knowing some of the truth. She might decide Ran was a liability. His gaze hardened at the thought, and he felt a tiny sound of irritation slip from him.

Ran's worried look told him that he needed to get his act together though, and he switched his child façade on. Needing to assuage her worries, he found his inspiration from the creak of the nearby door. It seemed Kogoro had finally woken up.

"I'm fine Ran-nee-chan!" smiling widely, something that was very off on Conan's face, he continued, " I just had trouble sleeping last night. Oyaji kept making weird noises and rubbing against the bed."

As he sat there he started to lightly swing his legs back and forth, the cheerful grin never leaving his face. Conan felt he was justified in starting to hum too, as Ran sat there shocked for a few moments while Kogoro was frozen in the doorway. The complacent look on his face was replaced by one of pure fear as Ran's head slowly turned to view him in the doorway.

Stuttering some unintelligible nonsense the man started to back away from Ran who was standing up with a murderous look on her face. Deciding to add fuel to the inferno that was Ran's anger, he piped up once again.

"And he kept saying something about Yoko-san being hot in his sleep. Is Yoko-san visiting a desert for her next show?"

"I think she might be. You go ahead and start eating Conan-kun. Me and otou-san are going to have a little chat."

With a distinctly Kaitou-ish grin, not that he'd ever admit he was similar to the thief in any way beyond intellect, he called out an affirmative before going back to his breakfast.

Ran grabbed her father by the collar of his night shirt, dragging him behind her towards the doorway. The man was clutching at his shirt in an attempt to keep it from choking him, already spewing excuses at her in a vain effort to appease her anger at his exposing Conan to his perverseness.

Feeling in a much better mood as he listened to the sounds of Ran scolding her father in the other room, he decided that today might not be quite as bad as he'd expected it to be. Ran and her father both appeared a little while later, Kogoro being forced to eat cold cereal as his daughter refused to make him any breakfast.

After Kogoro finished the dishes, the second part of his punishment via daughter, Ran started to gather everything together for her and Conan to head to school. She'd decided that the worst of the sprain was over, so he'd been allowed to go to school on the condition that he get someone else to carry his bag for him. He'd agreed so as to make sure he got to school.

Once they arrived at the gates of his school Ran looked around in hopes of seeing one of the Shonen Tantei waiting for him like they usually would have.

He'd called Haibara last night to request that she keep the kids away so that he could get to his meeting with Jodie. She hadn't given him a response per say, only saying that she would think on it. Apparently she had decided to go ahead, something he hadn't doubted. This was just as important to her as it was to him. Once the Black Organization went down she would finally be able to relax, not having to worry about looking over her shoulder constantly in fear of seeing Gin or Vermouth following her steps.

"How about I walk you to your class then Conan-kun?"

"That's alright Ran-nee-chan! It's not that far, and if you don't hurry you'll be late to class."

Glancing down at her watch, Ran sighed at the time. Indeed, if she didn't hurry she would be later herself. But she didn't want to have Conan hurt himself even more. Seeming to sense her worries, the boy spoke up.

"I'll be fine Ran-nee-chan, it's really close."

Taking another look at her watch, Ran acquiesced and started to jog in the direction of her own school after handing Conan his bag carefully. Wincing at the increase in pressure on his foot, he was careful to move slowly so as to give his nerves time to adapt to the pain from his ankle. After a few minutes the pain started to fade and he picked his pace up.

After about fifteen minutes he finally made it to the train station, just getting there in time to hop onto the train for Ekoda. As the train sped its way along the tracks he felt nervous anticipation rise in him, along with fear of what would happen if things went wrong. And it all could so easily go very, very wrong.

Shaking off the foreboding feeling that was slithering into his heart, he focused his mind on the positive. This was the best chance they were liable to ever get and Kid would either disappear or prove a help. The chances of the thief hindering their efforts to catch the Organization were slim to none. It would all be over soon enough.

The thought was a mantra he repeated in his head as the train continued towards its destination of Ekoda. A little while later they pulled into the station and he managed to exit with minimal problems. Moving swiftly through the crowd by way of ducking around and through people, all much taller than him, he made his way out of the station and back into the bright morning air. The time now read around eight o'clock and he needed to hurry. While Jodie hadn't set a specific time for them to meet, he was sure she would be there early. He also needed to make sure he made it back to the school in time to meet Ran once classes got out.

Following the street directions Jodie had sent him that morning he soon found himself standing outside an understated building. The walls were a reddish brown brick, the front of the store having glass walls to display some of the flower arrangements inside. Shading the windows and door was a deep green awning, with the words _Floral Delights_ printed in Old English style lettering on it. Underneath in plain hiragana were the same words, seemingly intended for those who struggled to read English or children who had yet to learn the language.

Opening the door and hearing the quite tinkle of the bell on the door echo through the quiet shop, he let it fall shut while taking a few steps into the store.

There were rows of wrought iron plant holders, filled to near overflow with a variety of colorful and some plain flowers. Marigolds of all sorts took up one row, with lily's taking another. There were three rows dedicated just to roses and their many varieties as well. Other rows full of flowers he couldn't identify on sight also took up space, with green plants set along the walls. Ferns were hanging from the ceiling and there was even a glass walled cooler full of premade bouquets set in the far corner of the store.

Straight ahead he saw a desk with a register set behind and several books and magazines lying on the counter. Two high stools were set by a raised portion of the counter, for people to sit and look at the different ideas of what they could order from the florists.

Walking up to the lower part of the counter he reached up to tap the bell set there. Seconds later a young woman, in her late 20's by his estimate, walked out of the back. Long, black hair was twisted up to form a cross between a ponytail and a bun on her head. Her eyes were also a deep black. She had a knowing look to her, but the gentle smile on her face didn't set any of his alarms off. In fact, he'd have to say he felt comfortable around the women.

"Was there something you needed help with?"

Her voice was quiet too, he noted with a vague sense of detachment.

Shaking himself out of the slight stupor the shop had put him into, the place just seemed so _normal_, he spoke up before she got too curious.

"Can I talk to Hanako-san please?" He gave her a grin for extra effect, coming across as a cheerful little boy.

"That would be me. You're Jodie-san's friend I suppose. If you don't mind, follow me and I'll take you to meet her. She's expecting you already."

Surprised at that, he'd assumed Hanako-san to be someone older, he made his way around the counter. Heading through the open doorway he saw benches filled with ribbons and cards and a whole wall of pottery. On another bench that was mostly bare, there was an ocean blue pot, low and oval in shape. Stones filled it partially, with a thin layer of soil just starting to cover them.

Seeing the gray leather gloves stained with dirt he realized he had interrupted the woman in the middle of a job. Resolving to apologize later for distracting her from her work, he hurried along through the room. Reaching the swinging door, where Hanako-san was waiting for him with that same gentle, if slightly amused, smile still on her face. Conan walked by her while quietly saying thank you, in response for holding the large door open for him.

She said nothing to that and only nodded her head. She also didn't follow him through the doorway, instead letting the door swing closed as she went back to her workbench.

Continuing his way carefully down the staircase, he moved through the dark, basement room. It was filled with cut flowers already arranged and smelled strongly of earth and water. It was a calming scent, much like the upper part of the store. It made what he was about to put into motion all the more poignant in his mind. Repeating his mantra from earlier, that it would all be over soon, he made his way towards a door on the far back wall of the room.

Standing on tip toe and cursing his height, or lack thereof rather, he managed to gain a handhold on the door with minimal pressure placed on his right ankle. Twisting the knob, he entered the room without paying much attention to its occupants, starting to speak as he let his back face the room in order to better close the door properly.

"Jodie-san, I realize this is going to take awhile but I have to ask that we finish this as soon as possible. I can't let Ran find out I missed school, not with my ankle sprained as it is."

The door clicked shut and he turned around, ready to start planning the downfall of one of the largest criminal organizations in the world. All his composure fell away though at the sight before him. Feeling his jaw start to gape and knowing his eyes were probably around the size of a golf ball at the moment, he found himself short of breath.

"Well, it seems you're slipping lately Conan. Getting injured chasing a thief, one that doesn't even really fight back, isn't something I ever expected of you. But I suppose it's not that bad considering there was an Organization member there."

The gravelly voice did nothing to restore his composure, and simply seemed to cement his state of absolute shock.

"Akai-san, don't talk like that. I'm sure this is all enough of a shock to him."

Jodie was standing on the opposite side of the room from Akai Shuichi, the man who was shot and killed by their double. The man who he had believed to have been shot and killed at least.

"He'll recover soon enough I'm sure. We've got more important things to deal with at the moment then the subject of my being alive or not."

"That's a very important thing to consider Akai, he's believed you were dead this whole time!"

The argument was stopped by a sudden gargling noise from Conan. Looking over at the boy, Akai made a questioning sound in his throat.

Jodie decided to voice their own thoughts out loud, as it seemed the boy wasn't being quite as perceptive today as he normally was.

"Cool kid? I realize this is something of a shock, but we'll have to save the explanations for la…"

The rest of her sentence was simply a buzzing in his ear as the guilt at not being able to prevent the man's death, the feelings of inadequacy and helplessness overcame him all at once. The edges of his vision blurred and the next thing he knew, the world was dark.

**Finally done with this chapter, and Akai-san has appeared! Next we'll be setting up the plan and a few other things I don't want to spoil. ;p Please leave a review if you don't mind. I love to hear what everyone thinks, feels, is looking forward too or hates so far. Ideas, thoughts, comments, opinions, questions etc are all appreciated. **

**And a shout out to Cat, meant to get this up earlier, but I slept in even though I went to bed early. Sorry! **

**Hope you all enjoyed this chapter and have a good day/night!**


	6. Chapter 6

The world was a blurry mess of dark browns, grays, blacks and the occasional splash of green, all accented with a fluorescent lighting. As he slowly came to Conan rapidly blinked his eyes, the lights on the ceiling creating a burning sensation in them. Deciding to keep them shut, he next tried to orientate himself by way of sound. A steady trickle of conversation could be faintly heard from what he assumed was the next room. Undecipherable for the most part, he managed to catch a few words, mostly 'cool kid' or 'Akai!', when Jodie-san spoke. At least he believed it to be Jodie-san.

Throbbing in his head left him confused and irritable, so the steady rising of noise from the other room quickly brought a grimace to his face. As the initial dizziness started to fade away he brought a hand up to his head to massage the temples, carefully pushing himself up with the use of his other hand. Using that same hand to support himself, he opened his eyes to take stock of his surroundings more thoroughly. He was no longer in the far back, basement room, but the main room of the basement. The earthy smell once again surrounded him and it helped to soothe the aggravation he felt at the pain in his head.

His body had been laid down on a bench that someone had cleared of the flower arrangements sitting there previously and a seat cushion had been placed under his head for comfort. The hard oak wood had still been somewhat harsh on his young body though, and sore muscles were stretched taut as he managed to bring his body the rest of the way up. Twisting carefully to avoid any sudden movements he swung both legs over the table edge, where they smacked into a high stool he hadn't seen.

A whimper of pain escaped him as his right ankle, which while better than before was still very tender, hit the stool with all the force generated by his swinging body.

The noise in the other room cut off at his whimper. Footsteps could then be heard heading towards the door and moments later it opened up to reveal Jodie, with Akai standing farther in the room with an annoyed expression on his face. Seeing the man was still hard, so he chose instead to focus on Jodie standing in the doorway. He needed time to process the fact that the man was still alive.

"Cool kid! What happened?" Jodie strode over to him with quick strides, all the while searching his body for any obvious injuries with her eyes alone.

Restraining the urge to grimace as the pain in his ankle flared up and down steadily, Conan found he was able to produce a believable grin to assuage her worries for him.

"I'm fine Jodie-san; just hit the stool on accident. What happened?"

She spoke distractedly, still looking over his body to make sure she hadn't missed anything or that he wasn't lying. Smart woman she was.

"You fainted and Akai managed to catch you before you hit your head on anything. Hanako-san let us set you on the bench so that you didn't draw attention as you would have upstairs, or catch a cold from lying on the concrete."

Seemingly satisfied with her check of him, Jodie grabbed Conan under the arms to lift him down onto the ground. Setting him on his feet, she beckoned him with her hand to follow her back into the far room. Akai was now leaning against the wall nonchalantly, as if it was normal for people to appear alive after being declared dead by the FBI.

The closing of the door brought him out of his brooding though, and he gave Conan a once over himself before speaking.

"You fainted."

Red filled Conan's cheeks at the two words spoken, embarrassed that he had in fact fainted. It was humiliating considering all the things he'd seen in his life so far, all the corpses and criminals. He wasn't going to admit that he'd already been feeling weak though, always tired no matter how much sleep he got.

Even Akai wouldn't support his being on this mission if he knew just how out of it Conan had been lately. He wasn't going to give them anymore reason to consider removing him from the mission though. Conan knew that if he didn't see this through himself, he'd always wonder about it. And if thing went wrong, he had to be there to make sure things were fixed.

Knowing he should be able to trust these people to do their jobs was one thing. Actually being able to trust them was a whole other thing though, one he couldn't follow through on completely.

"I'm awake now though." A smirk was aimed at him, and as Akai opened his mouth, Conan decided a subject change was in order. "Have you guys decided on anything yet?"

A more serious atmosphere was almost a physical weight in the room as Conan was informed that no, they hadn't decided on anything. When questioned as to what they had been yelling about earlier, though Jodie claimed they "were discussing things as adults", he'd been told that they had been arguing, "discussing" Jodie stressed, about whether they should let Conan on the mission after his fainting spell.

He'd bristled at having his more than normal moment of weakness referred to in the same way a Victorian girls swoons over the lack of proper flowers would have been, and he'd gone on a long rant explaining just why he should be let on. Needless to say, Jodie had lost against the combined forces of Akai and Conan on the matter. Something he was grateful for, if he'd had to explain about his being Shinichi he would have. But if it could be avoided he would. There was too much to go over if that came out, and it would implicate Haibara as well which would compromise his promise to protect her.

After resolving about what to do with Conan, the three had finally sat down to make a plan of action to be taken against the Black Organization the coming Saturday evening. All of them realized the difficulty of arranging this, and they spent several hours throwing ideas back and forth to no avail. Hanako-san brought drinks down for them at one point, along with crackers accompanied by cheese and salami. It had brought it home that they needed to hurry, if Conan didn't want to be late at getting back to the school. Not that the worry made anything go faster at first.

Finally, it seemed they'd stumbled upon one that might actually work.

"Vermouth has already spoken with me before and she's shown she doesn't want to hurt Ran. If we can get Ran to take me to the heist, it'll put Vermouth out of commission." Conan blazed on in the face of Jodie's quiet noise of protest, "That leaves Gin as the next one to really worry about, Vodka just follows his orders. The others will probably take his lead too. Akai, if you can find him before the end of the heist and take him out, Jodie and I, along with whoever else you can manage to get into the country without notice, should be able to take care of the rest."

Akai simply nodded his head, watchful eyes on the child before him. Jodie didn't verbalize any protests this time around. Taking that as a cue to continue, he did.

"We'll also need to have a bomb squad on sight and in the building. Our best bet is to try and sneak two or three in as workers. Can't ask the hotel for permission though, the Organization will be watching for that no doubt. Do you two have a way to get some uniforms on this short a notice?"

It was Akai who responded, "Yes, we can manage that just fine. It's getting to the leader I'm worried about."

"You mentioned earlier, you think Vermouth might cooperate to ensure Ran-san's safety?" Jodie spoke up.

Nodding his head he expanded, "She's gone out of her way to protect Ran before, I'm willing to bet she'll do it this time as well. What I'm worried about is if you'll be able to set your grudge aside for the entirety of the mission."

The question inherent in that statement was heard by all of them, even if it wasn't said out loud.

"I can do it, if it means taking them all out for good." Was Jodie's reply as a grim, but determined look made its way onto her face.

"So that means we're also going to need a squad prepared to head to whatever location we're given." Both Jodie and Conan looked over at the somber Akai at that. The only evidence of his anger at the Organization were his tightly clenched hands, shaking slightly at the force he exerted on them, set in his lap.

Conan continued the train of thought. "Which means we have to find a way to block communications to and from the hotel as soon as the heist starts. We can't alert them sooner though or he'll be moved within moments. If that happens, he's lost for good. So how do we find Vermouth before the heist itself starts? She'll definitely be among the inner circle of people, but that still leaves dozens to go through."

Running his hands through his hair frustrated, Conan sat on the stool he'd been given by Jodie, who for some reason was still fussing about him like a mother hen. It was appreciated though, since standing on concrete for several hours wasn't something he really wanted to do. The use of the stool also kept pressure off his nearly healed ankle.

Luckily he was a fairly fast healer, for he knew if careful, he might be able to manage to convince Ran to take him to the heist, without worrying about trying to convince her too much. Pulling the Sonoko fangirl card wasn't something he wanted to do. He'd feel as if he owed the rich girl something once he got his body back, even if she herself didn't realize any of it.

"I can find her easily enough, so leave that to me." Looking up in shock at the insertion, Conan stared bewildered at Jodie. "Just make sure you're listening carefully to the radio we'll be providing you with, I'm not sure how long I can hold out on arresting her by myself."

Nodding dumbly, he let Jodie and Akai sort out the rest of the nitty gritty details, the things that his involvement had no bearing on. Closing his eyes he moved his hands from where they were tangled in his hair to his temples. Slowly rubbing while putting pressure on the temples, he tried to relieve the migraine he could feel building. It seemed he was just a mass of aches and pains lately.

Hoping that Haibara hadn't noticed his distraction of late, he tuned in again when Akai pushed himself away from the wall he'd been leaning on during the discussions.

"I'll be going then to get things moving on the set up. I trust you'll take care of getting our people here?"

Jodie nodded her head in response, moving a bit to stretch her legs out from not moving for so long. Akai turned his eyes onto Conan, who met his steady gaze calmly.

"Take care of yourself Edogawa, make sure you're ready for anything come Saturday."

"Of course. Will I be seeing you before we catch them or after?" was his reply, accompanied by a cheeky grin at the ending statement.

Akai had a smile of his own, mouthing 'after' as Jodie looked on in disapproval at the apparent nonchalance of the two males. She knew it was just their way of dealing with the stress though, so she kept her feelings limited to only looks.

Conan continued to sit there and ponder how fast everything was moving as the two exited before him. No need to draw any extra attention by having them all leave at the same time. Hanako-san had politely informed the group sometime during their talking that their cover was the arrangement in the green vase. The two were posing as a couple picking up their flowers, should any customers of Hanako-san's get curious.

When he'd tried asking about Hanako-san earlier, he'd been told that they didn't know who she was exactly either. Orders had come down to them from their higher ups that she was a safe place for them, and they didn't question orders.

They left him musing to himself, as he waited for the knock on the door that would let him know it was safe to leave. His thoughts were a swirl of confusion and worry in his head. Ideas and half-thoughts ran through his head, dragging his attention to the future and all it's not so happy possibilities.

What if Kid tried to interfere with the mission in some misguided hero attempt? What if Ran got caught in crossfire trying to protect him or the bomb squad didn't disable whatever the Organization planted in the building? Or what if Haibara got hurt since he was sure she would try and come with him. The Shonen Tantei might decide to show up as well to try and catch Kid, never realizing the actual danger they'd be in.

Grimly he thought that even if they did know what danger they were in, they'd probably get excited and say something like they'd 'save the day' as Kamen Yaiba would. A tapping on the door distracted him though, and when Hanako-san opened the door he only just managed to pull his cheerful, child façade together.

"Edogawa-san, it's safe for you to go now."

"Arigatou Hanako-san. I'll be on my way in just a minute."

Sliding off the stool he gingerly settled onto his feet, turning around to try and lift the stool to put it away. He paused at the look Hanako-san was giving him. It wasn't quite judging, but a look of knowing, as if she could see past his mask and into his very soul. Shivering at the thought he ignored the look and continued moving the stool. She stepped aside to hold the door as he part dragged, part carried it back into the main basement room.

As they both started to ascend the stairs she startled him.

"Edogawa-san, keeping everything you feel inside yourself isn't good for your health."

Freezing in his spot halfway up the staircase, he resolutely kept his gaze forward, away from the woman's piercing eyes.

"I'm not sure what it is you're speaking of Hanako-san, but I assure you I'm fine."

"Just a thought for you to muse on Edogawa-san. I apologize if I offended you, but I would like you to know, that if you ever need to get away from the world, my shop is open to you. Don't be afraid to depend on others."

He paused before replying slowly.

"Thank you for the offer Hanako-san."

Leaving it at that he continued up the steps, and if there was an increase in his speed or length of his strides, she didn't comment on it. Making his way swiftly through the back room of the floral shop and into the main area of the store, he came up short as a young girl stared at him from the other side of the counter. What was it with people and staring at him lately?

"Ah, hello?"

The girl visibly perked up, similar to the way Ayumi-chan did whenever Conan spoke to her as an equal or gave her all his attention.

"Hello! My name's Yumi, what's yours?"

The girl wasn't in the least bit shy, was the first thing that went through his head when she spoke. Replying in kind, as it was only polite, his voice wasn't quite as loud.

"Edogawa Conan."

"Do you work for Hanako-san? You're sort of young to be working aren't you? You can't be much older than me, but you look like you'd be really good at it. You have nice eyes. Though Kaitou Kid has better eyes than anyone in the whole wide world. I'm going to be his bride when I grow up, and we'll have a pretty wedding with lots of flowers and I'll get them all from Hanako-san's shop, because she's really nice. Don't you think so?"

Conan felt his eyes get steadily wider as Yumi prattled on, talking about working, Kaitou Kid's eyes, marriage to said thief, and the owner of the shop all in a single breath. As Yumi finally stopped to take a breath, he quickly interjected himself in a desperate attempt to keep her from talking more. He said the first thing that came to mind.

"Shouldn't you be in school?"

On second thought, as he heard the quiet chuckle from behind him, maybe asking the kid a question wasn't the best way to get her to keep quiet.

"I'm not actually going to school yet, since I had a funny birthday so I didn't qualify to go this year, but I'm going next year for sure! I'll grow up really fast, and when I do really well Kaitou Kid-san will notice me for sure!" the girl looked at him as if daring him to contradict anything she'd just said.

Warily he nodded his head before slowly walking around the counter as the girl followed him with her eyes. Just as he made it around the counter and was about to start leaving, she started to once again speak.

"Shouldn't you be in school?" her words an echo of his own question.

Nervous, he glanced towards where Hanako-san had been, looking for help in dealing with the hyperactive child. He was met with empty space as apparently the woman had gone into the back room, abandoning him to the mercies of this child terror.

"I'm on my way right now actually. I was taking a field trip to visit Hanako-san, since I'm hoping to work for her once I get bigger." Hoping his own attempt at a childish, not scared, grin would be believable, he gave a sigh of relief as the girl seemed to accept his explanation.

"Well, you should hurry up then. Don't forget to come back and visit me sometime. You can help me pick out flowers for the wedding."

Saying that, she turned back in her seat to face the catalogs spread out across the counter. Simply feeling glad to leave, he gave a vague affirmative answer to make sure she didn't come after him later, and glanced at his watch to check the time. He had a half hour before school let out.

Shocked that so much time had passed, though he supposed a good chunk of it had disappeared while he was unconscious, he ran out the door. If he hurried, he might just make it in time to meet Ran at the gates.

The shock of seeing Akai alive hadn't gone away by any means though. He'd pushed it to the back of his mind, telling himself he'd deal with all the emotions that came with it later. It was bubbling there in the back of his mind, just on the edges of his waking thoughts along with all the other things that stressed him out.

In his opinion, he thought as the train moved along the tracks with a quiet rattle, emotions got in the way of dealing with the now. They were things that could be taken care of later. The thought wasn't a pleasant one as he'd been pushing it all off for so long. Shrugging the worry away he focused instead on the heist.

He could deal with all the guilt _after_ he got his body back.

**I don't really have much to say about this chapter. Besides that trying to write Jodie and Akai is a pain. I'm sure they came out somewhat ooc, but oh well, practice makes perfect. ^_^**

** I will be going on a temporary hiatus with this story though. I'm taking a trip to Europe, Paris and London to be exact, starting May 28th and I won't be back until June 9th. And the only thing I can really do on my phone is reply to e-mails or reviews. Hopefully you'll all bear with me, and I'll try to update as soon as I can. Already starting the next chapter to reduce your waiting time. **

**It's greatly appreciated when you guys review, thanks for taking the time to let me know what you think. I'm going to try and come up with a romantic one-shot (I'm going to be in the city of love!) to dedicate to all you sweet people, hope you look out for it. Have a good day/night everyone!**


	7. Chapter 7

If there was one thing that could drive Conan mad, it was a well-laid plan gone wrong. And boy, had this plan gone wrong. Wryly he wondered if it was even possible to have so many things deviate from the expected in a matter of minutes.

The sight of Kaitou Kid sailing over the heads of the police officers in a dive, managing to avoid all their grasping hands as well as Nakamori who had been on his tail, informed him that he should probably have expected the world to be flipped on its head that night.

The evening had started out well enough. He'd only just managed to convince Ran to take him to the heist though Sonoko was coming along as well. When Ai had found out, she had invited herself along too. All of Conan's protests to these editions to their party were efficiently ignored. Haibara was firm in that she was going to be there. There had been a strange glint in her eye when she said it, at which point he had given her up as a lost cause. Sonoko had laughingly waved an invitation to the event in his face, so he hadn't been able to even try and get her to not go. Not that he thought he would have been able to manage it anyways.

Making sure he could go had involved some finagling on his part, but Ran had given in after checking over his ankle herself and seeing how well it had healed. Once they had arrived and gone through the customary cheek pinch, he resisted the urge to sneak away from the overprotective girl. They had arrived around ten o'clock and while Ran talked with Sonoko, Jodie managed to slip him an ear piece by pretending to drop her purse by his feet. Ai had given him a look at that, letting him know exactly what she thought of the not so subtle move.

Shrugging off Ai's criticism had been fairly easy, used to it as he was.

Neither Ran nor Sonoko had recognized Jodie thankfully, what with her hair covered in a brown wig and colored contacts concealing her eyes. After fitting the ear piece in, the others were able to update him on the situation. Vermouth was the one who had found Jodie, cornering her early on before he'd even arrived. Lucky for them all, Akai was there to keep Jodie in check during the encounter. The most frightening part of it all was that Vermouth had known Ran and him were going to be showing up, and she had offered her help so long as Ran was removed from the vicinity before the start of the heist.

It made them all wonder if the others knew what they were planning even though Vermouth had said she was the only one who knew. Vermouth was a wild card, and they couldn't afford to have her end up in the opponent's hands. Playing her was their best bet, and all of them had their fingers crossed hoping for the best.

Conan was worrying about how to get Ran out of there without being taken away as well. He had tried suggesting that Ai play sick so that Ran would take her home. The glare he received for that suggestion should have killed him at fifty paces in his opinion.

The time had ticked away on the clock though, and shortly before midnight Ran had received a call from her mother asking her to hurry home as Eri had to speak with Ran in person about something. The matter wasn't clarified, but thankfully Ran was too worried to really think about her decisions. Conan had asked if he and Haibara could just stay with Sonoko so they wouldn't miss the heist, and Ran had agreed quickly.

Conan had a sneaking suspicion that in all actuality it was Vermouth who had made the call. He had seen her alter ego for the night, that of the actress Chris Vineyard, leave the ballroom for a few minutes right before Ran received her call. But he wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth this particular night.

Listening in to the reports through the discrete earpiece, he had waited in anticipation for the start of Kaitou Kid's show. That would be when they would strike, the bomb squad having already found and disabled several bombs throughout the hotel. He was sure there were more, but they had gotten the worst ones, those placed near the foundational and support beams.

Akai hadn't checked in yet, but Conan figured if the man could fool him into believing he was dead then he was more than capable of taking care of Gin by himself.

That had been his last thought before the heist had started, and then everything had started going wrong.

Kaitou Kid had appeared in a puff of pink smoke, filling the whole room with the bright, sweet smelling smoke as well. At the same moment he'd appeared, the moment the large clock had chimed midnight, Conan heard a gunshot through the ear piece. Ai heard it as well through her own, one she had acquired earlier after following Jodie around the party room. Peering as best he could through the smoke, he saw Vodka make his way out of the room before the smoke blocked him from Conan's sight again.

Ignoring the figure of Kaitou Kid decked out in his customary white suit, Conan turned towards Ai. They exchanged a quick look before she nodded and Conan took off towards the doorway. Weaving in between people he ran as quickly as he could in the crowded room. Finally reaching the doorway, he found it ajar just enough for him to slip through. Doing so he continued down the hallway in the direction where the scent of the smoke in the room was strongest. As he rushed down the hallway he slowed down just in time to avoid running past the wall's edge where the hallway split into a T.

Sidling up to the wall on the right, the side where the smell was strongest, he quieted his breathing as much as possible so as to hear if Vodka had gone all the way down the hall or not. It had just occurred to him that he didn't really have anything to defend himself with, when the sound of footsteps reached his ears. Whoever was coming, was coming in his direction. Glancing around for a place to hide he shuffled over to a tiny wall indent where someone had placed a low table with a miniature reproduction statue of the Venus de Milo.

The heavy footsteps of the person walking let him know they had turned the corner just as he crawled underneath the table into the shadowy corner. The footsteps slowed down before stopping a few feet away from Conan, directly across from him but in the middle of the hallway. A chill crept down his spine as he recognized the leather shoes that were now in his line of vision. It was Vodka standing there. A shuffling of clothes was heard and then the quiet click of a gun being switched off safety and cocked. Ready to fire at anything that moved in the too still hallway.

Conan didn't think he had much to fear with people coming into the hallway though. They'd come a ways into the hotel from the music room and Kid always was a wonderful distraction to most people. He himself almost wished he was there rather than here, as the full impact of his dilemma hit him. Conan knew he desperately needed a distraction if he wanted any hope of having time to release the soccer ball from his belt, or get a chance to aim at Vodka with his dart watch.

Talking started through his ear piece, quiet enough that Conan didn't have to worry about Vodka hearing it and locating him so long as he held still. The sudden sound gave him an idea though. Slowly moving his hand upwards in the confined space, praying that vodka wouldn't somehow see it, he carefully pulled the ear piece off. Getting a good grip on the plastic edge of it he glanced around the hall trying to decide where the best place to throw it would be.

Deciding to aim for an ornamental vase filled with fake brush that was sitting at an angle to his right and at Vodka's back, he took a deep breath. Knowing he'd have only a single chance to do this, as it was literally do or die, Conan aimed carefully and threw it gently. He'd used as little arm movement as physically possible, but his worries of under throwing it were put to rest by the quiet ting of plastic hitting ceramic and the following ringing that followed it.

Vodka reacted the way he'd expected him too, turning to his own right to face the vase and firing without truly looking at the target. As he was twirling Conan hit the button to activate the soccer ball while also starting his shoes up. As the ball started to swell outwards he shoved up with his shoulders, knocking the table out of place and the armless statue onto the floor. The sound startled Vodka, but Conan was faster and just as Vodka turned around with the gun up he connected his foot with the ball. It slammed home into his face just as he pulled the trigger.

Vodka fell over knocked out cold, the imprint of the soccer ball on his face as the ball itself rolled a little ways before deflating. Conan could only stand there in shock, adrenaline and triumph seizing his body in a stranglehold. A voice above him got him going though.

"You really are lucky when it comes to getting shot at Tantei-kun."

Looking upwards he was met with the sight of Kid holding himself up in a corner of the ceiling. He must have had a confused look as Kid grinned before dropping down to land gracefully in front of him.

"I was about to interfere but then you pulled such a wonderful maneuver on the man. I was concerned, I must say, when I saw you not moving after the gunfire though." Kid adopted a thoughtful look, "Almost thought it had hit you, but now I see that bullets just seem to fly past you rather than through."

A cheerful grin came back and Conan wondered what insanity would happen now that Kid was aware of what was happening at his heist.

"It seems I'll be making something of an exception tonight though. I can't really argue about you hurting someone in self-defense now can I?"

"You could. Doesn't mean I'd listen to a you." A sharp look was sent to Kid with that statement.

Ignoring the pretend hurt look on the thief's face, Conan moved to retrieve the ear piece from the shattered vase. He cursed under his breath once he saw that the wire on it had been cut up by a piece of the broken vase.

A gloved hand holding something green appeared in front of his face then, the arm leading up above him. Leaning backwards to get a look at what the phantom thief was presenting him with his head made contact with his legs. Kid was standing behind him and leaning over, presenting him with something in the shape of a clover.

Silently taking it into his hands, he looked at it some more. Upon closer examination it was revealed to be an ear piece similar to what he'd just broken.

"You may borrow one of mine if you like. I've already tuned it in to the signal you're big friends were using. No thank you necessary."

Those same gloved hands reached under his arms to lift him off his knees and back onto his feet. Blushing at being manhandled and treated like a child, despite knowing that Kid didn't know he wasn't a child, he pulled away from the hold. Or at least he tried to pull away.

"Once we've taken care of the trouble makers though, I expect you to explain just what is going on. I don't care for being left in the dark Tantei-kun."

The thief then released him and started to walk back to where the hallway split off. Without looking back he called out, "Coming Tantei-kun?"

Furious at being treated as he was, Conan knew that the thief probably at this point had a better grasp on the situation, if not the details about why, than he himself did. As he followed along he fitted the ear piece in. As the two unlikely allies moved up several floors and through the now bright hallways where people were actually staying, Conan caught snatches of reports. The bomb squads had moved and as far as they could tell all the bombs should have been deactivated. Jodie chimed in at one point, saying Vermouth thought the leader was one of the Organization operatives in the building. Apparently not even Vermouth truly knew who the leader was.

Kid led him to a conference room though, where he was met with the sight of Akai slouched in a chair and Gin on the floor in a pool of blood. Rushing past the thief he drew up to Akai who didn't make any move to acknowledge him. The only thing keeping him from completely blowing his lid was that he could see the gentle rise and fall of his chest.

"Akai?"

The voice roused him that he opened his eyes to see the worried look from Conan.

In a raspy, dry voice he spoke. "He's the leader."

Conan glanced towards the dead body of Gin, looking at Akai then, to confirm that he was thinking of the right person. Grimly Akai nodded his head in return. Conan breathed a sigh of relief at that before looking over Akai's body to check for injuries.

"I'm fine, just a little dizzy. Your friend in white there stuck knockout gas in my face when I was walking in the hallways."

Turning to look at the thief, Conan was met with a slightly sheepish look. Disbelief colored his own voice as he spoke his thoughts out loud.

"You left him in a room with a dead body where anyone could just walk in?" then he turned back to Akai, who was watching him with no small measure of amusement. "And he's not my friend."

"I'm hurt, truly hurt Tantei-kun. Here I thought we were getting along so well too."

Crossing his arms, Conan didn't deign to respond verbally, but instead stood there and glared at the thief until he broke down.

"Okay, maybe it wasn't the best way but I was short on time when I found them. Besides I pulled the blinds and locked the door. It's not like just anyone could get in."

"And just why did you feel the need to even knock him out in the first place?"

At this Kid threw a disgruntled look at the agent. "He was looking a little too closely at some of my traps."

Conan opened his mouth to respond, but before he could speak a crackling came over the ear pieces followed by the panicked sounds of Jodie's voice.

"Vermouth's disappeared! And I have no clue where the Kid is, she might be going after him right now though!"

Conan's borrowed radio didn't have a way to speak, but that was handled by Akai.

"Kaitou Kid is with Edogawa right now. Try to find Vermouth, Edogawa will keep an eye on the thief. I've got the leader though. He's dead, see if you can't call for some back up here. We've got a bit of a mess to clean up. 7th floor conference room. "

A bit more crackling could be heard and the faint sounds of conversation drifted across before she spoke again.

"I have people on the way right now, just hold on. And tell Cool Kid to get the thief out of there. I don't want him dead on our watch."

"So it's all right if I'm dead off your watch?"

Conan gave the thief a dry look, essentially telling him to shut up. He stalked past the infuriating thief to leave the room. Looking over his shoulder he paused.

"Coming Kaitou Kid?" he spoke in a mockery of the thief's own words.

"Of course, I wouldn't leave a damsel walking all alone in such a dangerous area."

Both Conan and Akai gave the Kid incredulous looks at that. Then Akai started to crack up laughing and in a huff Conan stormed out of the room with Kid on his heels grinning like a fool. Neither of the two spoke as they silently made their way towards the rooftop in a mutual understanding. Amazingly they didn't see any hotel guests or police officers the whole way. When Conan mentioned this, Kid simply laughed and said that the police were in a bit of a sticky bind at the moment.

Deciding that maybe he didn't really want to know, he kept his mouth shut for the rest of the way up to the roof. Upon reaching the rooftop without incident, Conan had concluded in his own mind that Vermouth had most likely disappeared with the fallout. The reports streaming into his ear told him that all the other members had been gathered up, and Jodie had been given plenty of information from Vermouth in the form of a letter. As they were speaking, agents around the world were mobilizing to round up the last of the Black Organization.

Surprisingly calm, Conan watched as Kid made his way to the roof's edge.

"You're not even going to make a tiny effort to catch me Tantei-kun?"

Meeting the thief's eyes, Conan held the stare for a minute before turning away.

"I have other things to do first, things far more important than catching a thief that just goes and returns everything anyways. I'll get you another time."

"And my explanation about tonight's happenings? This matters as much to you as it does to me Tantei-kun."

A smile without humor touched his lips. "I doubt it means nearly as much to you as it does to me Kid. Assuming the next step goes well, we'll be meeting again. Not as you expect though, so be prepared. I don't want any less than your best when I come back."

"You talk like you might not be coming back."

"I don't know if I'll be able to. It all depends on someone else."

"Don't die on me Tantei-kun."

"I don't plan too."

With that the thief jumped off the roof, spreading his glider to catch the currents. Watching it he waited until Kid was out of sight before walking down the stairwell. He met Ai at the base of the stairs and together they walked back to the fifth floor to find Sonoko. Upon arrival Conan found that the police force, as well as many of the guests, were stuck in a mixture of glue, honey and duck tape. Deciding that it was better to not ask how Ai had finagled her way out of getting stuck in the mess, they found Sonoko who had surprisingly been spared as well. She was stuck behind a squadron of policemen though, and it had taken the combined efforts of both him and Ai to get the sticky mess loose enough that Sonoko could get out.

They eventually did it though and Conan felt himself sigh in relief when the Suzuki limo stopped outside the professor's house to drop Ai off. When he went to say good bye though, Ai simply motioned for him to follow her. Shrugging he got out and waved good bye to the limo driver. Sonoko was too stuck in her own little fantasy world to even notice them leaving.

Feeling nervous and apprehensive as to what Ai needed him for, he followed her into the house. Down into the basement they went and arriving in the lab Conan immediately took note of the lack of papers on the desks. Everything looked cleaned up and brand new. Turning back towards Haibara, he saw her simply standing there with her palm held out. Resting in the palm of her hand was a little white pill, barely the size of a grain of rice.

"You don't have to take it if you don't want to."

Her voice was quiet in the room, but it echoed off the stark walls. This was it, the final antidote. As he recalled Ai telling him, only a week ago from today though it seemed so long ago, if it didn't work his body would be so crippled from the amount of chemicals in his system that he wouldn't be able to take another one without killing himself. It was another do or die choice, the second of the night.

Swallowing past a dry throat, he reached out and took the pill. Nodding she said nothing but instead motioned for him to once again follow her back up the stairs. Halfway up she started to speak.

"We've prepared one of the guest rooms for you, it's been set up with all we might need to monitor your status through everything." Opening the door she continued on into the kitchen. "You should be out for most of it once you get past the initial pain so you'll be on an I.V. drip, I'm not anticipating anything beyond one to two days. There's enough supplies for up to a week though."

Rifling through the fridge she pulled out a bottle of water and handed it to him. Wordlessly he took it. They then continued into the ground floor guest room. It was set up much like a hospital room, but with a much comfier bed and carpet. Climbing onto the bed he unscrewed the cap of the bottle. Looking at the pill one last time, he popped it into his mouth and downed it with the water.

"In a moment or so it's going to start burning."

He could feel it already starting to snake its way through his veins, leaving a trail of fire in its wake.

"I won't put you on I.V. until you pass out which shouldn't take long. Just remember not to fight the transformation. If you have any excess stress on your body right now you won't make it. I'm putting pads on to monitor your heart rate though."

It was spreading faster now and he was feeling delirious. Ai's gentle hands, and wasn't that unusual for the girl to be gentle, pushed his body under the covers before opening his shirt to attach the little pads. There was pain now, binding his limbs like vines and putting a chokehold on his esophagus.

"Breath baka, breath. Focus on your breath and relax. In, out, in, out. Come on Kudo you can do this."

He could vaguely hear the door open and the sound of Agasa talking to Ai. It felt like there was cotton fluff in his ears though and nothing came out clearly. There was a building pressure behind his eyes and he thought this must be what it felt like to die.

"Kudo? Kudo?"

What was she shouting for again? There was already someone screaming in the room. Why couldn't they be quiet and let him sleep?

Or was that him screaming? But who was he again?

"KUDO?" the woman sounded panicked now.

Was that his name? White dots started to creep across his vision. Closing his eyes, he let the whiteness take hold of him.

**SORRY! I really didn't intend for it to take so long to update. Thank you everyone who has been so patient with me, and everyone who encouraged me in their reviews. *bows* many thanks, I couldn't have done it without you guys! It's a long story why it took so long, but between a combination of bad luck, writer's block, and my absolute fear of how sucky this chapter would turn out, I only just managed to do it. Actually, I went and deleted all the work I persevered to write, and made myself sit down and start from scrap today. ^_^;; And then it just flowed.**

**Big thanks to all the reviewers though, you guys are seriously awesome. And a kudos to Madame of all Manga, a new friend and an awesome person. ^_^ I hope to talk with you more, but thanks for putting up with me while I tried to write this. I probably sounded a little crazy every time I wrote you. **

**Ah, but on to talking of the actual story. I did intend for the spots in his eyes to be white. You'll find out next chapter. ^^ Try thinking of different cliche sayings if you want a hint to the meaning. Also, hoped the Kaitou and Conan interaction, as well as the spot with Akai seemed realistic enough. Let me know what you thought of all the characters actions really though. I'd love to hear what you all have to say. And I think that's all I really need to address for it.**

**If you have any questions, comments, thoughts, opinions, ideas etc., please leave a review. Have a good day/night wherever you are!**


	8. Chapter 8

Beep.

_What happened?_

Beep. Beep.

_Where am I?_

Beep.

_Why is everything so dark?_

Beep. Beep.

_When did I black out?_

Beep.

_Is there anyone there?_

"His brain activity has been steadily increasing over the past several days. It's a good sign, it means his mind has a greater chance of recovery." The girl, and it was a girl not a woman which was strange since wasn't he in a hospital, sighed before continuing. "There's no way of knowing for sure if he'll ever truly wake up. Chances are he'll become more aware of his surroundings though. Someone needs to be here at all times to talk with him. It's the best shot we have of drawing him back."

A new voice spoke up, male this time, quiet and not yet raspy from age. Most likely a teenager then, approximately his own age, his mind supplied. The person's voice was also light, almost playful which bespoke someone surprisingly carefree considering the topic of conversation.

"I'll be here whenever I can manage then Ai-chan."

The girl's voice conveyed her irritation. "Don't call me that."

"But you look like such an Ai-chan!"

He could almost hear the smirk in the too chipper and far too loud voice. The voice sounded oddly familiar, just like the girls. But who were these people?

He was startled as the words, "Doesn't she look like an Ai-chan, Tantei-kun?" blew across his ear gently. The change in heart rate must have shown up on the monitor as he heard a yelp from the boy. It was followed by furious whispering from the girl, berating him for getting to close to her patients.

_Am I her patient? _

"I said talk to him you idiot, not practically molest him. He's aware of what we're saying."

"Molesting?"

Screeched throughout the room, the word seemed to have drawn attention from someone else as he felt the vibrations from footsteps heading up the door. The squeak of the door opening silenced the mutterings of the one the little girl, Ai-chan, called 'idiot'.

Queried the new voice, "Has Shinichi-kun woken up?"

It was an old man's voice, curious and slightly weary. This voice also sounded familiar to his ears, sparking vague memories in him. It hurt to think on that though so he let the sparks drift away from him as he settled back into the bliss of sleep. Before he lost all conscious thought another thought drifted into his head.

_Am I Shinichi-kun?_

"He's shown signs of awareness, fingers twitching, rapid movement of the eyes, changes in heart rate as a reaction to different stimuli, and looking over the reports I've determined that his brain activity spikes when people are in the room talking." Here she glanced at Kaito before continuing, "I believe he's become aware of the world around him. As I was telling Kid-san, there should be someone with him as often as possible. The more stimuli he's subjected to the better."

"Ran-kun will be happy to hear that then."

Kaito felt a slight pang at that. While the child scientist hadn't batted an eyelash at his insistence that he be allowed to spend time with Tantei-kun, the professor had stipulated that he not be there when Mouri Ran came over to visit. He didn't want Shinichi to have to come up with more lies to explain his near constant presence once he woke up. And Mouri Ran came over all the time.

Not to say he didn't like her. He did really, she reminded him of Aoko. And the girl had actually taken it fairly well when she was informed by Haibara and Hakase that Conan was actually Shinichi who was now in a coma from taking the antidote to the poison that had turned him into Conan. But the girl interfered with his ability to check up on Kudo Shinichi and he didn't like that at all.

A few obstacles found their way into the path of Mouri Ran whenever she decided to visit Kudo, and when Ai-chan had asked him one day if he was the cause, he had answered with a shrug. Apparently his attempts to keep the girl away for as long as possible weren't something that bothered the scientist as she had simply ignored his presence after that.

Sighing at his depressing thoughts, Kaito absentmindedly pulled out some balls to juggle as he sat in a plush chair he'd set up next to Kudo's bed. Finding out that his delightful Tantei-kun was missing brought fear, he'd been so afraid that someone had discovered the little boy had played a role in the destruction of the organization. Finding out that Tantei-kun was actually the Meitantei-san as well had brought shock. Learning that someone precious to him was in a coma on the brink of death had brought the feeling of having his heart ripped out.

All his detectives were precious to him, but this one was special. If asked, Kaito knew he wouldn't be able to explain just why Kudo was different from the others. Maybe it had to do with the fact that Kudo was precious to him while being two different people. Maybe because he had been the closest to ever catching him. Or the extremes the boy would go through to trick him.

Whatever it was, it had made him desperate and ill at the thought of losing someone so dear to him.

Looking at Kudo lying on the bed, needles in his arm supplying nutrients to his body and different wires attached to monitor his condition at all times, he looked so lifeless. It caused a tiny clench in his chest, something he'd learned to ignore over the past several weeks in which the detective stayed trapped within his own mind.

"You should get some rest."

Startled at the sudden noise, Kaito dropped the blue ball and it rolled towards the feet of Haibara. Kneeling down primly she tossed the ball back to Kaito who caught it absentmindedly, still trying to figure out how she'd managed to surprise him so easily.

"It won't do you any good to stay in here if you're just going to sit there. It's starting to get late and Kudo is asleep already."

His poker face rescued him from the shock in time to reply with a grin, "Are you worried about me Ai-chan?"

She snarled, "Don't call me that."

Turning on her heel to exit she threw one more parting comment. "And yes I'm worried. I need you to be in top shape if we're going to use you to give Kudo mental exercise once he wakes up."

Laughing at that, Kaito gave in to her request. He crawled into the bed alongside Shinichi being careful not to pull any of the wires. Snuggling into Shinichi's side, he gentled his breathing and eventually drifted off, secure in the knowledge that he'd be there to protect Shinichi should anything happen. He'd already vowed to keep the detective safe after all.

**I'm sorry! I won't bore you with all the details here, but life has been insane lately. And I've been suffering writer's block because of it. *cries* Now this chapter is so short, but I've got to get to bed so I can't do anything more. Hopefully it's cute enough to help make up for that. **

**Also, all stories will be on a temporary hiatus to last about two months. I'm leaving for my basic military training tomorrow, and it lasts for 8 weeks and then I'll be busy settling in to tech school. I won't abandon the stories for any reason except severe memory loss or death though. It's just going to be some time before I can update. I hope you all understand and I dearly apologize for the inconvenience. I hope you'll all still review despite the short chapter and once I'm back I'll make sure to respond to each and every one of them. **


	9. Chapter 9

"Who are you?"

The soft inquiry startled Kaito from the trance he'd fallen into. Glancing away from Shinichi's still sleeping face he met the eyes of Mouri Ran. She was looking at him quizzically, unsure how to respond to this apparent stranger sitting at her best friend's bedside. The similarities between Kaito and Shinichi probably increased her confusion.

Kaito briefly considered making some lie up, claiming he was some distant cousin. Their physical appearance would make it plausible and he was sure that Kudo Yukiko would be willing to play along in his deception. She would also ensure her husband kept it up as well.

He discarded the notion just as quickly as it came to him though. For whatever reason he didn't want to be considered family to Shinichi.

"Kuroba Kaito." With a flourish he produced a yellow rose, holding it out to Ran who blushed before delicately reaching out and retrieving the rose from Kaito's hand.

"My father was a mentor to Shinichi-san's mother, so when I heard he'd fallen in to a coma I felt the urge to come see him. I apologize if my presence startled you." He gave her a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes, though Ran failed to notice. "I'll be taking my leave then. Have a good day Mouri-san."

Swiftly moving past her Kaito was halfway out the door when Ran called out to him.

"Wait!"

Glancing over his shoulder at her, he paused for a moment as she gathered herself to ask her question.

"How did you know my name?"

Giving her a grin, with just a hint of a sharp edge to it, he answered with a bite to his tone.

"A better question would be, how could I not know your name Mouri-san?"

With that he shut the door behind him and made his way out of the house before she had time to collect her wits and stop him again. Strolling down the empty sidewalks towards the train station, Kaito mulled over how he would explain to Professor Agasa that he hadn't intentionally revealed himself to Ran. He himself had mixed feelings over the meeting. On one hand, now that Ran knew of him he could make visits without having to work around her constant visits. On the other, once Shinichi woke up she would most likely tell him about Kaito. Shinichi would easily realize the connection between Kid and Kaito. Would the detective use that knowledge against him or would he continue to play the game as before?

As these thoughts drifted around in his head, Kaito made his way through Beika and into the train station on autopilot. Stepping onto the somewhat crowded train he continued to mull over different scenarios when he was for the second time that day startled. An older woman, appearing to be in her sixties, dressed in a formal kimono had sidled up next to him and reached out to yank on his sweater's sleeve.

Turning his head to her he remained silent as she calmly handed him a bamboo fan with what appeared to be white silk as the cloth part. Reaching out he took the fan with no little trepidation. As soon as it was in his hand she pulled away and Kaito let her go without protest. He had a feeling that following her wouldn't be a very good idea, and Kaito had learned long ago to follow his instincts. It rarely led him wrong. Without looking at the fan he made it vanish with a simple flick of his wrist. He'd see what exactly the closed fan contained after he was somewhere more private and secure than a packed train car.

Exiting the station Kaito took in his surroundings, feeling at once content to be back home and irritable that he wasn't at Shinichi's side. It had been almost a month since he'd fallen into a coma and Kaito had noticed that as time went on he found it harder and harder to leave the boy's side. Shinichi seemed to be recovering and there were days where he seemed almost on the brink of consciousness. Kaito wanted to be there when he woke up, but he knew that it was more likely Ran-san would be there for that honor.

Besides, what would he even say if Shinichi woke up while he was there?

He decided to forgo his home for a little while longer, not wanting to see the pitying looks his mother would send him for his early arrival, or the confused ones Aoko would give him if she happened to show up at his house. Hakuba had stopped following him around so much, and the accusations of his being Kaitou Kid had slowed to a trickle.

Wandering the streets of Ekoda he found himself walking in an area he couldn't recall exploring before. What really caught his eye though was a store calling itself Floral Delights. He could see through the glass windows that made up the majority of the front of the store and the displays drew him in. Picking up his pace he quickly made his way towards the store.

Pausing for only a split second at the entrance, he pushed the door open. Assaulted by the smell of damp earth and flora he looked around curiously. The set up was appealing, with bright colors interspersed by dark greens and more subdued colors. The shop was brightly lit with the majority of the light being natural and making its way into the store from the front windows.

Making his way towards the back he found a small section devoted to just roses. There were rose bushes as well as pre-cut flowers in small quantities. He approved, by only having small amounts of pre-cut flowers on display there were fewer flowers thrown away. He also noticed a small book on a stand next to the buckets of pre-cut roses. Flipping through it he realized that it denoted the meanings of each type of rose. Glancing around the store he came to the realization that there were several books of the sort next to each species of flower.

Feeling intrigued he moved through the store slowly, occasionally browsing through the books left out. He made mental notes on the different flowers and their meanings. One never knew when such information could become of use. Besides, Kaito had always found the meanings behind something as fragile as a flower fascinating.

"Is there something I can help you find?"

Looking up Kaito took in the woman next to him. Long black hair, pulled up into a high ponytail, framed a delicate face free of make-up. The green store apron she wore told him that she was an employee.

"Actually, I don't suppose you do mass orders of roses by request?"

As he asked he kept an eye on her face. He'd met many a merchant that jacked up the price once they found out he would regularly need roses. The person he got them from now had done so as well, but he'd been one of the cheaper offers. Kaito decided he quite liked this store and figured that coming here for his roses might not be a bad idea. An added bonus was the close location to his home.

The women smiled at him.

"I think we could work something out."

**Hello again! Wow, it's been forever it seems. Sorry about all this, but the military hasn't been very conducive to inspiring me to write. I'm going to keep pushing through though, so please bare with me. Updates will be spotty but I promise I'm not going to ever abandon any of these. I'll try to use my spare weekend time to write and hopefully I'll be able to get my word count back up. ^_^ **

**I'd be happy to hear what you guys thought of the chapter though and constructive criticism is always welcome. Have a good night/day! **


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